Four scientific goals for 'Chang'e I' moon project

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 09, 2003

Four scientific goals for 'Chang'e I' moon project

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Chang'e I, China's moon probing project, is proceeding in an intense and orderly way. China's first moon probing activity is planned for launching in three years. Four scientific goals have been set for the first stage of the program, "Chang'e I" moon orbiting project.

This was disclosed recently by Ou'yang Ziyuan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China's chief scientist on moon probing.

Ouyang said that feasibility studies on the project have been going on for years and on the technical scheme over the past two years. Now everything is proceeding in an orderly way as scheduled.

The first stage of the program, Chang'e I now under way in China, will mostly adopt existing mature technologies and there is no insurmountable difficult technical problem, and no subversive technical problem will crop up. But since the project is aimed at launching a moon-probing satellite and making it turn around the moon, it will take a lot of time for the development of all equipment to be installed inside the satellite and for the establishment of a series of systems such as orbiting, carrying, monitoring, and ground receiving, therefore, three years' time is still needed to realize the first moon-probing goal.

According to the short-term planning, there are three stages for China's moon probing, that is, orbiting, landing, and returning. At the first stage, orbiting, China's first moon exploration satellite will be developed and launched which will conduct a global, overall, and comprehensive exploration to capture three-dimensional graphs of the moon. In the second stage, landing, research will launch a docking vehicle for lunar soft landing, soft landing test, inspecting around the lunar surface by a lunar cruise, on-spot explorations, and moon-based astronomical observations. At the third stage, returning, in addition to a docking vehicle, a small-sized sampling capsule will be launched which will collect key samples from the moon and return to the earth. "Orbiting" is presently centered on China's moon probing program.

Four scientific goals:

First, obtaining three-dimensional graphs of the lunar surface. Basic structures and geomorphic units of the lunar surface will be defined precisely. Researches on the shape, size, distribution, and density will be made on the crates on the moon. These researches on the crates will provide basic data for identifying the age of the surface and studying the early history of terrestrial planets and offer basic information needed for site selection for soft landing on the moon surface and for the selection of an optimal location for the lunar base.

Second, analyzing the content of usable elements on the moon and the characteristics of the distribution of materials. Research will be focused on the content and distribution of 14 exploitable and utilizable elements such as titanium and iron; on the drawing of a map showing the distribution of elements around the moon and a special map of lunar rock, mineral and geology; on the discovery of an enrichment zone of various elements on the lunar surface; and on the assessment of the prospect for the development and utilization of lunar mineral resources.

Third, detecting the thickness of the lunar soil by using microwave radiation technology, thereby calculating the age of the lunar surface and distribution of the lunar soil on the lunar surface, and on this basis, calculating the content, distribution, and quantity of helium-3 which is power generating fuel caused by nuclear fusion; and

Fourth, exploring the spatial environment between the earth and the moon. The average distance between the earth and the moon is 380,000 km, which is located in the earth's remote magnetic field. Here the satellite probes solar energetic particles, plasma in solar wind, and the interaction between the solar wind and the moon and between the tail of the magnetic field of the earth and the moon.

By People's Daily Online

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