China to launch unmanned lunar mission in 2017
17 Dec 2013
China has plans to launch its next unmanned lunar probe in 2017, to collect and bring back lunar samples, an official said yesterday, after the country's first probe made a successful landing on the moon over the weekend.
The Chinese leadership has prioritised the execution of the space programme, with president Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.
The Chang'e 3 probe, which takes its name from a goddess in Chinese mythology, landed on the moon on Saturday, setting down a lunar rover called the "Jade Rabbit".
Chang'e 4, with a planned launch in 2015, will likely be a tweaked version of Chang'e 3. Plans are already in the works for a Chang'e 5 spacecraft, set to be China's first sample return mission.
The development of the Chang'e 5 probe, tasked with the moon sampling mission, is right on track. It would be launched around 2017, according to a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
"After the success of the Chang'e 3 mission, the lunar exploration programme will enter the third phase, with the main goal being to achieve unmanned automatic collection of samples and returning them (to the earth)," spokesman Wu Zhijian told a news conference.
The successful soft-landing of a spacecraft on the Moon by China, was a milestone in space history, according to a Purdue University professor of aeronautics and astronautics.
"I am very excited about the great venture that China has undertaken and hope that it will spur greater commitment by all nations to explore space," said professor James Longuski in an interview with Xinhua yesterday.
The mission comprising a lander and Moon rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, Chang'e-3 lunar probe made a soft-landing on the moon at 9:11 pm Saturday Beijing Time. Separating from the lander, Jade Rabbit later rolled to moon surface on Sunday.
According to Longuski, who is also an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), with the feat China had become the third space faring nation to accomplish such a monumental achievement and had demonstrated that it was serious about making its mark in pursuing the final frontier.
After the American spacecraft, Surveyor 1, soft-landed on the Moon in 1966, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on it only three years later.
Although China had not officially announced to undertake a manned mission to the moon, the door was now open and -- if they had the will -- nothing would stand in their way, according to Longuski.
