BEIJING (AP) – Following the successful return of the moon’s rocks by its Chang’e 5 robotic spacecraft, China is preparing for future missions that could prepare the ground for a possible lunar base to host explorers said a senior space program official on Thursday.
China’s next three lunar missions are on track, along with programs to return samples from Mars and explore asteroids and the planet Jupiter, said China Yunhua’s deputy commander-in-chief of the Lunar Exploration Program.
“The exploration of the truth of the universe is just beginning,” Wu told a news conference hours after the Chang’e 5 capsule parachuted into a landing in Inner Mongolia carrying the first lunar samples. they had been on Earth for over 40 years.
Named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, the Chang’e program has made three landings, including those on its less explored side. Chang’e 6, scheduled for launch in 2023, is to collect more samples from the lunar south pole, while its two successors will conduct detailed surveys and test the technologies needed to build a scientific base on the moon.
No dates have been given for Chang’e 7 and 8, or for a manned mission to the Moon that China says is under construction, or for the construction of a lunar base.
“China is ready to continue to contribute to the world and improve human well-being with Chinese space solutions,” Wu said.
The Chang’e 5 spacecraft capsule and its load of samples were moved to the Beijing space program campus after landing shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday.
The mission achieved the first novelties of China’s lunar exploration program in collecting samples, launching a vehicle from the lunar surface and coupling with the capsule to transfer the samples for its journey to the Earth, according to the National Space Administration of China in a statement issued after the landing.
“As our nation’s most technically complex and technically innovative space mission, Chang’e 5 has achieved multiple technical advances … and represents a major success,” he said.
China, in 2003, became the third country to send an astronaut into orbit on its own after the Soviet Union and the United States, and its space program has followed a steady and prudent track, largely avoiding fatalities and launch failures that marked the United States. Soviet space race of the 1960s.
Wu said the latest flight was in collaboration with the European Space Agency, along with Argentina, Namibia, Pakistan and other countries with which the Chinese cooperate in monitoring and communicating with their spacecraft. spatial. China in the future “will encourage more scientists from around the world to participate to get more scientific results,” Wu said.
An exception remains the United States. Amid concerns over the secrecy of the Chinese space program and close military connections, U.S. law prohibits cooperation between NASA and the CNSA unless Congress gives its approval. This has prevented China from participating in the International Space Station and has helped push Beijing to launch an already defunct experimental space station and formulate plans to complete an advanced place in permanent orbit in the next two years.
Two of the four Chang’e 5 modules were installed on the moon on December 1 and collected about 2 kilograms of samples by removing them from the surface and drilling 2 meters (approximately 6 feet) into the crust of the moon. Samples were deposited in a sealed container that a boarding vehicle took to the return module.
The newly collected rocks are believed to be billions of years younger than those previously obtained by the United States and the former Soviet Union, which offer new insights into the history of the moon and other bodies in the solar system. They come from a part of the moon known as Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, near a place called Mons Rumker which was believed to be volcanic in ancient times.
As with the 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of lunar samples recovered by U.S. astronauts from 1969 to 1972, they will be analyzed by age and composition and are expected to be shared with other countries.
The age of the samples will help fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between about 1 billion and 3 billion years ago, Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at the University of Washington, in the American city of St. Louis, wrote in an email. They can also give clues about the availability of economically useful resources on the Moon, such as concentrated hydrogen and oxygen, Jolliff said.
“These samples will be a treasure!” Jolliff wrote. “My hat is for our Chinese colleagues for having carried out a very difficult mission; the science that will emerge from the analysis of the returned samples will be a legacy that will last for many, many years and, hopefully, will involve the international community of scientists ”.
Whether U.S. researchers will have access to the samples depends on U.S. policy, Wu said.
“Regardless of whether they are U.S. government departments, business operations, scientists, or engineers, we sincerely seek friendly cooperation based on equality, mutual benefit, and peaceful enforcement,” Wu said.