China's space programme gears up for missions to Moon, Mars

[rahulrds1]

China's space programe gears up for missions to Moon, Mars

Source: the Hindu.com.

China is planning giant strides into deep space exploration by sending its first lunar manned mission by 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015, intensifying its space race with India which also plans Moon and Sun missions.

China's first step toward expected to orbit the Moon, land and return to Earth by 2020, said Ye Peijian, Commander in Chief of the Chang'e (lunar landing) programme and an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Ye told a meeting Space scientists that China plans to launch its first manned moon landing in 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015.

"China has the full capacity to accomplish Mars exploration by 2013," Ye was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times newspaper.

The unmanned mission to the Moon was seen as a counter to India's Chandrayan-1, which left its foot prints on the Moon by crashing on to the lunar surface with the tricolour, stealing a march over China by becoming the fourth country to do so after the U.S., Russia and Japan.

China, earlier, had a head start by flying a man into space in 2003 thus becoming the third nation only after United States and the Soviet Union and Chang'e 1 was launched in 2007 which entered lunar orbit and sent pictures of the moon.

India plans to launch its Chandrayan-II mission in 2012-13 with its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which would include a lunar orbiter to probe the moon surface for geological date and look for helium-3.

ISRO also plans to send manned space flight by 2015 and a human moon mission by 2025 besides plans to send a satellite (Aditya) to study Sun corona with more advanced GSLV launchers.

China has also announced plans to set up its orbital space station by 2020.

Earlier this month, Chief Engineer overseeing China's lunar exploration programme Wu Weiren said that work on the Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter had entered the pre-launch testing stage and it would make its first trial flight before the end of the year.

Chang'e-2 will carry out a soft-landing test in preparation for the launch of Chang'e-3, which is scheduled for 2013. The Chang'e Project is named after a Chinese legend of a goddess who took a magic elixir and flew to the moon.

Space-programme officials had said previously that the Chang'e-2 mission would be launched in October around the Mid Autumn Festival, dedicated to the Moon Goddess, Chang'e, but no precise date has been given.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar orbiter project, said Beijing plans to launch an orbital space station by around 2020 is achievable, based on aerospace technology development and the success of future manned missions.

China's space programme will pose great challenges to scientists and technicians, Mr. Ouyang said. The space station will be quite small in size compared with the International Space Station, a joint collaboration between 16 countries, including the U.S. and Russia.

Chinese analysts, however, dismissed international concerns that Beijing is engaging in an outer-space arms race, stressing that recent activities and future missions are for scientific purposes and for the benefit of mankind.

 

[rahulrds1]

Chang'e-3: China To Launch First Moon Rover In 2013

source : Chang'e-3: China To Launch First Moon Rover In 2013

China's next spacecraft to the moon, Chang'e-3, which is provisionally slated for launch in 2013, will execute a soft landing on the lunar surface.

Announcing this on Friday, Ye Peijian, chief scientist of deep space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology, said that the launch will be from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Emphasizing that the program was on track, he said that the spacecraft had entered the critical phase of prototype development consisting of wheels and legs, and was also a brand new one for China. "So the technology is difficult to master," he has been quoted as saying in the People's Daily.

According to Ye, since the probe will make a soft landing on the moon's surface, the use of parachutes has been ruled out due to the moon's vacuum. Instead, it will employ an anti-thrust mechanism to reduce the speed of the engine.

Five landing sites have been shortlisted with the first choice going to a flat, well-lit, and easily observable region known as Sinus Iridium.

He said that the lander weighing 100 kg will have seven instruments and cameras. In addition to their scientific roles, the cameras will also take pictures of earth and other celestial bodies. The lander will have the capacity to operate for three consecutive months.

The rover, with a payload capacity of 20 kg, will be equipped with eight instruments including a panoramic camera and a lunar exploration radar. It will use automated navigation and will have the capacity to climb and avoid obstacles. It will also have the capacity for what is known as "turning route selection," says the People's Daily.

The rover will transmit data back to earth by itself or through the lander.

The firm announcement about the launch of Chang'e-3 comes at a time when there is a degree of uncertainty regarding the launch of India's second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, which was also slated for next year.

Chandrayaan-2 consists of an India-made rocket, orbiter, and rover, while the lander is from Russia. The uncertainty about the launch schedule is because of the Russian lander. Russia has stated that because of the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission which was testing the lunar lander, production of the lander for Chandrayaan-2 will be delayed.

If the flight had been on schedule, 2013 which marks the 50th anniversary of the Indian space program, would have witnessed a race to the moon between the two Asian space powers – India and China.

It may recalled that at the 17th National Space Science Symposium which was held at Tirupati last month, former chairman of ISRO, U. R. Rao, was all praise for the Chinese space program. He said that it was well defined and had a clear road map.

After Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4 will be launched. Together, they will complete the task of landing on the moon in the second phase of China's lunar exploration program. According to Xinhua News, Chang'e-5 will be launched in 2017 and will send back samples of moon rock to earth for analysis from a depth of two meters.

China's first mission to the moon, Chang'e-1, was launched on October 24, 2007 and the second one on October 1, 2010. A recent white paper relating to the Chinese space program stated that the final aim of the lunar exploration program was a possible human landing on the moon sometime after 2020.

 

[huaxia rox]

prc should only focus on manned moon mission and spy settallite kinds of real useful things....to go to mars or to build usless space stations is wasting money and resources that already r limited....