China plans three-phase Moon exploration

NewScientist.com ^ | March 03, 2003 | Will Knight

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

China has revealed further details of its plans to explore the Moon - the first unmanned probe could be launched by 2005, say officials. They also hinted that the motivation for the missions is to mine the Moon's resources.

The lunar program, named Chang'e after a legend about a fairy that visits the moon, would be in three phases. First an orbiter would be sent to the Moon, followed by a lander, and then finally a sample return craft.

"We will be able to embark on a maiden unmanned mission within two and a half years if the government endorses the scheme now,'' Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme, told The People's Daily.

However, a firm timetable for these missions has not been announced and funding has yet to be approved.

Mineral and energy resources

Ziyuan said exploring the Moon "probably holds the key to humanity's future subsistence and development". Chinese officials have previously said that some sort of permanent, most likely unmanned, base could be established on the Moon's surface by 2010.

Furthermore, Luan Enjie, director of China National Space Administration, hinted that China would be interesting in exploiting rare resources found on the Moon's surface.

"The prospect for the development and utilisation of the lunar potential mineral and energy resources provide resource reserves for the sustainable development of human society," he told the newspaper.

However, James Oberg, a space analyst and veteran of the US space program, believes the projects are more about national pride than scientific or industrial exploration. Nonetheless, he says the lunar missions are well within China's means.
 
Head of the queue

"They've already developed the capabilities to operate spacecraft around the Moon and even on its surface," he told New Scientist.

China has so far launched four "Shenzhou" spacecraft in preparation for a crewed mission into space. Such an achievement would make China only the third nation in the world, after the US and Russia, to place humans in space.

Oberg adds that China has set itself a number of ambitious goals. "As with their manned programme, they don't intend to recreate the US and Russian programmes," he says. "They intend to go to the head of the queue in terms of capabilities."

[Willie Green]

Related thread: Missile Technology Plant Moved to China

[ChicagoRepublican]

Come on Bush! Reassert American primacy over the solar system. If China succeeds, then America will go the way medievel China went. We will become an insular nation burdened by a socialist bureacracy, only to be owned by foreigners in some future day.

[DoughtyOne]

I realize this is somewhat premature, but I can't believe we are financing the entrance into so many fields for a brutal regime that places so little value on human life and human rights. The last thing I want is a China type nation entering the high ground. This is utter madness.

[Willie Green]

I realize this is somewhat premature,

Premature?
It may be already too late!

(Click on the "related thread" link that I posted.)

[RightWhale]

some sort of permanent, most likely unmanned, base could be established on the Moon's surface by 2010.

Looks like robotics will be getting a big boost.

[DoughtyOne]

I can see why they're so damed driven to take our guns. Their policies are gutting this nation.

[UncleSamUSA]

If -- and thats a BIG BIG BIG if -- the Chinese do get to the moon the first thing they are going to do is set up a Take-Out Restaurant with Egg Foo Young, Chow Mein, and all sorts of Hunan and Cantonese specials.

The second thing they are going to do is build a great big old wall.

Then the biggest Chinese astronaut is going to club the smallest Chinese astronaut over the head and beat him senseless and tell him to tow the party line next time or else.

After all, you gotta do what you do best, even on the moon.

[b4its2late]

Must be cheese up there.......

[Publius6961]

I think that's wonderful.
Good luck to them.

[Illbay]

I applaud this. It might be just the thing that kick-starts our own space exploration.

Oh, and I believe that space exploration ought to be primarily undertaken by private enterprise with a profit motive. That's the only way that it can be done properly, with minimal impact according to who is in Congress, etc.

[Willie Green]

After all, you gotta do what you do best, even on the moon.

Our Space Race to the Moon against the Soviet Union wasn't actually about going to the Moon.

Similarly, China's lunar objectives aren't about going to the Moon either.

[Illbay]

However, no moose have yet been found.

[Texas_Jarhead]

I read on an earlier thread discussing trade deficits that the US (in year 2000 I think) even had a trade deficit in spacecraft.

[RightWhale]

The last thing I want is a China type nation entering the high ground.

Somebody will take the high ground. America had it and let it go to whoever else wants it. I would like to see India make a race out of it.

[bert]

...America had it and let it go to whoever else wants it....

This is not a true statement.

America never had it to the exclusion of all. The moon is there for any one who can to shoot for. America has no claim on the moon or on space and can not therefore "let it go"

The question is whether there is adequate treasure on the moon to justify the expense of exploration and exploitation. At least one Chinaman thinks there is.

America was distracted by the leftists who can't see beyond the misery on earth and their lawyers who demand perfection in every endeavor. However, a little competition might bring out the treasure seekers.

[Wavyhill]

Why do I get the funny feeling that, once Bush tries to get back into the space race against the Chinese, that the Democrats are going to filibuster him?

"We're patriotic Americans, but we are concerned that this might blow a hole in the deficit. We should be worrying about important issues, like the Patients' Bill of Rights."

[RightWhale]

America never had it to the exclusion of all.

You were lucky Skywalker. Sure, you bagged a Deathstar, but only one. There's more where that came from, and maybe we'll let you extract resources from the moon so long as you keep your license fees current.

[Enemy Of The State]

hell, they have to get a man in space first.

[Buckeye Bomber]

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/SpaceLaw/moontxt.htm

This treaty, signed and ratified by most nations of the world, basically states that the moon belongs to all mankind. Note the wording on the plaque that Neil Armstrong left on the moon. "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

[Buckeye Bomber]

Exactly. Once they go to the moon, you'll see the American flag on the Mars in no time. We don't believe in just matching Communists. We leapfrog over them.