China counts down to land moon rover
Print Edition
China will launch its third lunar probe, Chang’e-3, by the end of the year on a mission to land a rover vehicle on the moon, officials said yesterday.
Chang’e-3 has officially entered its launch implementation stage following a research and construction period, said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration mission.
“The mission has high risks because the probe has to take a soft landing on the moon as well as release the rover to carry out scientific research,” Wu said.
The mission will see a Chinese orbiter soft-land on a celestial body for the first time, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said yesterday.
Wu said the landing would be the culmination of six years’ preparation.
The lunar probe will fly some 400,000 kilometers to orbit around the moon at a height of 15 kilometers before making its descent, Wu said.
“The major difficulty is that it is unclear what conditions will be on the moon so it will be like a blind soft landing,” he said.
The Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, is the first choice of landing area for Chang’e-3, but another four sites have been earmarked as backups, said Ye Peijian, chief designer of Chang’e-1, the country’s first moon probe, and chief commander of the Chang’e-2 and Chang’e-3 missions.
The rover will patrol the surface for at least three months with the 100-kilogram vehicle being controlled remotely from Earth, Ye said.
Avoid big holes
“It will be the most difficult part of the mission as the rover must avoid dropping into big holes on the moon and climb over some small pits and rocks,” he said.
Shanghai showcased a moon rover model, the MR-3, in 2008, mainly designed by the Shanghai Academy of Aerospace Industry, but it is unclear whether this will be the rover taken to the moon by Chang’e-3.
The rover will have an expandable solar power plate to absorb the sun’s energy during the day and draw back at night to wrap around the equipment to protect it from temperatures of minus 170 degrees Celsius.
Chang’e-3 will also observe space from the moon’s surface as the lack of atmosphere allows better viewing than from Earth. The program could help build a telecommunication network that covers a future Mars probe, said Ouyang Ziyuan, the project’s chief scientist.
A telescope in Sheshan Hill in suburban Shanghai, Asia’s biggest radio telescope, will be used to track Chang’e-3.
China’s lunar probe projects have achieved several breakthroughs since 2006, with the successful launching of two lunar probes, Chang’e-1 on October 24, 2007, and Chang’e-2 on October 1, 2010.
The first lunar probe retrieved a great deal of scientific data and a complete map of the moon while the second created a full higher-resolution map and a high-definition image of the preferred landing site.
At a public lecture, Ouyang said there was no timetable as yet for putting a man on the moon.
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