CHINA plans to launch the Chang’e-5 lunar probe next year, which is expected to bring lunar samples back to the Earth, according to Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
While addressing a space conference Tuesday, China’s Space Day, Pei said that the Chang’e-5 lunar probe will be very complex, containing four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander.
The orbiter and returner then head back to the Earth, separating from each other when they are several thousands of kilometers from the Earth. Finally, the returner will make its way back to the Earth, according to Pei.
After fulfilling the three steps of its lunar probe program — orbiting, landing and returning — China will conduct further exploration of the Moon, including landing and probing the polar regions of the Moon, said Tian Yulong, secretary general of CNSA.
Pei also announced that China is planning four deep space exploration missions before 2030, including probes to Mars, asteroids and Jupiter.
China will launch its first Mars probe in 2020, and it is expected to orbit around, land and put a rover on the Red Planet, Pei said.
It also plans to probe asteroids around 2022, followed by a probe in 2028 to bring Mars samples back to Earth.
An exploration mission to the Jupiter system was planned for around 2029.
During a space conference held on the same day, Wang Chi, director of the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said China is striving to send a group of new satellites into orbit around 2020, as part of the country’s fast-expanding space science program.
The satellites include a Sino-European joint mission known as “SMILE,” which will focus on the interaction between solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere, according to Wang.
The Einstein-Probe, also among the new satellites, is tasked with discovering celestial bodies that emit X-rays during fierce changes as well as quiescent black holes with transient high-energy radiation, Wang said.
The satellites also include the Advanced Space-borne Solar Observatory, the Gravitational Wave Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor, the Water Cycle Observation Mission and the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling Exploration.
Also, China is to launch Gaofen-5, a hyperspectral imaging satellite for Earth observation, at the beginning of May this year, said Tong Xudong, director of the Earth Observation System and Data Center, China National Space Administration (CNSA), at the conference.
The new satellite, capable of obtaining spectral information from ultraviolet to long-wave infrared radiation, can be used to survey inland waters and mineral resources, Tong introduced.
The satellite can also monitor air pollutants, greenhouse gases and aerosol particles, Tong said.(Xinhua)