AsianScientist (Mar. 18, 2013) – An experimental version of the Chang’e-5 lunar explorer will be launched before 2015 to carry out re-entry tests on the capsule, said its chief designer.
The experimental spacecraft will consist of the Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter base structure and a return capsule, said Hu Hao, chief designer of the lunar exploration program’s third phase and a deputy to the National People’s Congress, in an interview with China Daily at the NPC annual session.
The Chang’e-5 mission will be China’s first lunar explorer to return to Earth.
After entering into lunar orbit, two modules will separate and land on the moon, with one collecting soil samples. Lunar soil samples retrieved from up to a depth of two meters will be placed in the ascending module that will make an automatic rendezvous and docking with the orbiting module. The samples will then be transferred to a re-entry module.
Chang’e-3 is expected to be launched in the second half of this year, in a mission that will see the lunar exploration orbiter’s first ever soft-landing on the moon. The lunar explorer will spend 15 days on the moon where it will probe and explore the lunar surface, and carry out various environmental and space technology related tests.
Following 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.
China launched Chang’e-1 in 2007 and Chang’e-2 in 2010. The first retrieved lunar data and carried out an initial mapping of the surface, while the second created a full high-resolution map of the moon. In December last year, Chang’e-2 took close-up images of the near-earth asteroid Toutatis at about seven million kilometers away from the Earth.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: parudox/Flickr/CC.
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