China wants to create a robotic station on the Moon
China's Lunar Exploration mission program raised the possibility of deploying a special team by the end of the next decade
New missions of China’s Lunar Exploration Program contemplate the deployment of a robotic outpost at the south pole of the Earth’s satellite at the end of the next decade.
After Chang’e 5, which will be launched in 2020 to bring samples to Earth from a latitude 18 degrees north of the lunar equator, the focus of Chinese lunar missions will shift towards the south pole.
Chang’e 6 aims to return samples from the region, and Chang’e 7 will study the environment and resources of the South Pole, explained researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a general overview of China’s lunar plans published in the journal Science. Neither mission has a fixed launch date so far, but both will start in 2020. So will Chang’e 8, whose fate is not clear at this time.
These three missions represent the next phase of China’s lunar plans, and will result in a polar research post by 2030, if all goes according to plan, reports Space.com.
“Through these missions, a prototype of a robotic scientific research station will be built on the Moon, and exploration objectives will shift the focus from the development of space technology to space science and space applications,” wrote Chunlai Li and colleagues. in the Science article.
“The Lunar Scientific Research Station, with the capacity for long-term operations and intelligent operational control, will be designed to carry out technical verification and validation of resource development and utilization technology, explore perspectives for applications, improve capacity of lunar science and resources,” added the researchers, and laid the foundations for the construction and operation of future Lunar Research Stations, as well as for the exploration of the moon by humans.”
K. Tovar
Source: Tekcrispy
