Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

China’s plan to rocket to the Moon the Chang’E-4 mission this year is progressing. If successful, the mission will be the first exploration of the Moon’s far side – touching down at the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin.

One overall plan by China is to preliminarily emplace a research station (a set of probe platforms) on the Moon’s South Pole by way of three to four lander missions during the period of 2020-2030.

China’s growing Moon agenda is being outlined this week at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference being held in The Woodlands, Texas.

Two-step mission

The Chang’E-4 mission will be carried out in two steps, reports Jun Huang, of the Planetary Science Institute, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). Jun is lead author of the paper that explains: Firstly, a relay satellite with two micro satellites will be launched by a CZ-4C rocket from Xichang, China. The relay satellite, equipped with a low-frequency radio spectrometer (developed in the Netherlands), will be sent to the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2 to make unique space physics measurements.

In addition, Jun reports, there will be laser reflectors used for orbital determination assistance. The two micro satellites will be equipped with Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) and micro visible cameras contributed from Saudi Arabia.

Six months later after the relay satellite launch, the second part of the Chang’E-4 mission — a lander and a rover — will be sent moonward by a CZ-3B rocket from Xichang, China.

Scientific payloads

Since the lander and rover were designed as the backup of the Chang’E-3 mission, Jun and colleagues note that there are several similar scientific payloads, including Landing Camera, Topographic Camera on the lander, and Panorama Camera, Visible/Near Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, Ground Penetrating Radar on the rover.

The additional instruments are Low-Frequency Radio Spectrometer, Lunar Neutron and Radiation Dose Detector (developed in Germany), and a Lunar Micro Ecosystem on the lander. A Neutral Atom Detector (developed in Sweden) is on the rover.

The candidate landing region for the Chang’E-4 mission  is 45°S-46°S 176.4°E-178.8°E, which is in the southern floor of the Von Kármán crater, within the SPA basin.

Sample return

The Chang’E-5 mission, China’s first lunar sample return mission, is now scheduled to launch in 2019 and is designed to bring back nearly 5 pounds (2 kilograms) of samples from the Moon’s surface. This mission was slated for launch in November 2017. However, it was delayed until 2019 due to a Long March 5 rocket failure.

In a paper led by Y. Qian of the Planetary Science Institute, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the reported landing site of the Chang’E-5 mission is designated between 41-45°N in latitude and 49-69°W in longitude within northern Oceanus Procellarum. This area is also called the Rümker region.

 

 

 

The Rümker region is located in the smooth plains in northern Oceanus Procellarum. Mons Rümker is a circular volcanic complex that is roughly 43 miles (70 kilometers) in diameter and some 1,640 feet (170 meters) higher than the surrounding mare surface. The Rümker region is covered by a variety of landforms, such as numbers of mare ridges and domes.

 

 

Research station

In another paper presented at the LPSC meeting, Lin Xu, Yongliao Zou and Jiang Wu review China’s Change’E Project. The authors of this paper are from the General Office of Lunar and Deepspace Exploration.

The Change’E Project is designed to implement and complete the following three stages: “circling around the Moon”, “landing on the Moon” and “returning from the Moon” before 2020.

A lunar research station is described as a set of probe platforms, with the overall scientific goals being:

(1) to detect and study the distribution, content and source of water and volatile components;

(2) to acquire the characteristics of the chemical composition of the deep part of the Moon;

(3) to study the age of the South Pole Aitken basin and the early impact history of the solar system;

(4) to explore the surface environment of the lunar south pole;

(5) to carry out lunar resource utilization tests;

(6) to carry out bio-scientific studies on the lunar surface;

(7) to carry out observation and research on macro-geological phenomena in the base of the moon; and

(8) to carry out the Earth-Moon Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) test and observation.

Technical support

Also on China’s Moon agenda, the team reports, a rare-gas extraction test in the lunar soil, a 3D-printing test in order to provide “technical support” for future manned Moon activities and lunar resource utilization.

In addition, a series of small terrestrial ecosystem experiments on the lunar surface will provide theoretical and technological support for safeguarding future crewed missions.

Lastly, equipment is to be emplaced on the Moon to evaluate the energy difference of the Earth’s climate system. Doing so would reveal the dynamics of our planet’s magnetosphere, the plasma layer, and the ionosphere, they report.

Microsymposium

The Chinese lunar and deep space exploration program was spotlighted prior to the LPSC.

Microsymposium 59 was cosponsored by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and the Russian Academy of Sciences Vernadsky and Space Research institutes, a March 17-18 program dedicated to a focus on the lunar and deep space exploration activities of the People’s Republic of China.

“International exploration of the Solar System has grown significantly since the beginning of the Space Age, with missions launched by many nations, and participation by scientists worldwide in planning and data analysis,” explains James Head, a key microsymposium organizer at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Head said that of particular interest was the analysis of data for the Chang’E 1-3 missions and the concepts and landing site selection studies for the Chang’E-4 farside rover and Chang’E-5 nearside mare lunar sample return missions.

Microsymposium 59 heard reports from a wide range of Chinese university and Chinese Academy of Sciences scientific colleagues, along with their descriptions of both data analysis and results of previous missions to the Moon.  It also included informal and unofficial presentations on future mission plans and activities for the Moon, Mars, asteroids and beyond.

By the numbers, Microsymposium 59 had over 200 individuals and walk-in attendees registered from 15 nations.

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