China details unmanned moon landing plan

CHINA'S bold plan to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon before returning to Earth has moved another step forward with a test craft shifting into lunar orbit to conduct further tests, state media reported.

THE service module of a lunar orbiter that flew back to Earth in November had been sitting in a position that brought in into sync with Earth's orbit, known as the second Lagrange point. It had separated from the orbiter in November.

The craft, loaded with support systems for operating a spaceship, will collect further data to aid planning of the 2017 Chang'e 5 mission, state broadcaster China Central Television said.

Chang'e 5 is being designed to make a soft landing on the moon and collect at least 2kg of rock and soil samples before returning to Earth.

If successful, that would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to meet such a challenge.

China's lunar exploration program has already launched a pair of orbiting lunar probes, and in 2013 landed a craft on the moon with a rover onboard. None of those were designed to return to Earth. China also has hinted at a possible crewed mission to the moon.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, the only other country after Russia and the US to achieve manned space travel independently. It has also launched a temporarily crewed space station.

China's program has received Russian assistance, but has largely developed independently of America's, which is now in its sixth decade of sending people into space.

Source


A scary thought crosses my mind when i think about some of the super powers that aren't so friendly with the usa etc teaming up for a moon program especially with russia planning a moon base in the next few years. Perhaps a interplanetary war is soon upon us? or perhaps we can see the world unite to a degree to further our reach into space for the betterment of the species?



"Russia plans to send cosmonauts to the moon and unmanned spacecraft to Mars, Venus and Jupiter, all by 2030, according to news reports.

These ambitious spaceflight goals are laid out in a strategy document drawn up recently by Russia's Federal Space Agency (known as Roscosmos), the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday (March 13).

And there's more. Roscosmos wants a new rocket called Angara to become the nation's workhorse launch vehicle by 2020, replacing the venerable Soyuz and Proton rockets that have been carrying the load since the 1960s.



The space agency also plans to top Angara with a new six-seat spaceship, an upgrade over the three-passenger Soyuz spacecraft that is currently the world's only means of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

Angara will launch from a new spaceport in eastern Russia called Vostochny, Russian news outlet RT reports. Construction began on the $20 billion Vosotchny cosmodrome last year, and Roscosmos hopes it will be ready to replace the old Baikonur facility — which is outside Russia's borders, in neighboring Kazakhstan — by 2018.

Russia's new space vision focuses heavily on the moon. In addition to the manned lunar landing, Roscosmos is considering building a space station in orbit around Earth's nearest neighbor by 2030. Russia is a key partner in the recently completed International Space Station, but at the moment the $100 billion orbiting lab is only slated to operate through 2020.

The Russian space plan also calls for sending robotic probes to visit Venus, Jupiter and Mars by 2030.

Roscosmos' goals may strike some observers as incredibly ambitious, especially given the Russian space program's poor track record recently.

In February 2011, for example, a Rockot launch vehicle failed to place an Earth-observing satellite in the proper orbit. On Aug. 18, a Proton rocket similarly underperformed, delivering a $300 million communications satellite to the wrong orbit.

Less than a week later, on Aug. 24, the unmanned Progress 44 supply ship crashed while hauling cargo to the space station. Progress 44 was done in by a problem with its Soyuz rocket. Russia uses a similar version of the Soyuz to launch astronauts to the space station, so manned flights were temporarily put on hold until the problem with the rocket could be identified and fixed.

A Soyuz 2 rocket crashed just after liftoff on Dec. 23, destroying a Russian military communications satellite. Finally, the failed Mars probe Phobos-Grunt came crashing back to Earth on Jan. 15, 2012, two months after getting stuck in Earth orbit shortly after liftoff.

Phobos-Grunt was the 19th spacecraft Russia has launched toward Mars since 1960. None has achieved full mission success.

While Russia did resume rocket launches after each incident, Roscosmos officials were forced to delay the planned launch of the next Soyuz spacecraft carrying a new space station crew after the capsule was damaged in a pressure test. The delay pushed the Soyuz crew launch back from a planned late March liftoff to no earlier than mid-May to allow time for repairs.

" Source

Thanks for all the updates and the links.

I didn't even know China sent anyone into space yet.

Not much new stuff for the Americans. I guess the Mars rovers are enough for now.

And if the newer Soyuz rockets are so faulty why not use the previous generation of rockets that were not faulty? Sometimes I don't undertand techies and their preference for "new" over "dependable".

a reply to: Akatsuki

I wouldn't worry about interplanetary war unless we are sending world leaders into space. The day you hear the president, kremlin, or emperor is going into space.... That's when you should worry, if the leader is "safely" outside of the war-zone and the rest of the cards seem to point to war.... It might just be truth.

We would probably have people living on the moon by now if governments spent as much on space programs as they do on military programs and war machines. As a people we would be so much more advanced.

originally posted by: Hijinx
a reply to: Akatsuki



I wouldn't worry about interplanetary war unless we are sending world leaders into space. The day you hear the president, kremlin, or emperor is going into space.... That's when you should worry, if the leader is "safely" outside of the war-zone and the rest of the cards seem to point to war.... It might just be truth.

Makes sense lol

originally posted by: JHumm
We would probably have people living on the moon by now if governments spent as much on space programs as they do on military programs and war machines. As a people we would be so much more advanced.

Exactly, it's sad isn't it.

www.universityherald.com...

According to Xinhua News, China's state-run news agency, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) confirmed the craft's movements on Tuesday.

The spacecraft is doing well in terms of energy and the state of its equipment, while the ground control team has also reported things running smoothly along. The craft launched Oct. 24 and the capsule separated shortly after and returned to Earth on Nov. 1 after an eight-day mission.

"After the circular flight stabilizes, the module will travel along the current orbit at an altitude of 200 km above the moon's surface for tests to validate key technologies for the next lunar probe mission, Chang'e-5," Zhao Wenbo, vice director of SASTIND's lunar probe and space project center, told Xinhua News.

For China, the mission is a major step forward and the country's space agency is apparently building toward landing on the moon and returning to Earth. Chang'e-5 is tentatively slated for a 2017 launch.

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