© Reuters
Chinese space officials have revealed details about the country's ambitious lunar mission, which would be the first to return soil samples to Earth since the Soviet Luna 24 expedition in 1976. Beijing is also planning to have a fully-functioning space station by 2022.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has chosen the Mons Rumker region of the moon as the landing site for the upcoming Chang'e 5 mission, Liu Jizhong, director of the Chinese agency's lunar exploration program, told an international conference.
The site, which was named in honor of German astronomer Karl Rumker, is a volcanic formation in the northwest part of the visible side of the satellite.
The Luna 24 mission retrieved 170g of soil from the moon. The Chinese probe aims to collect about 2kg of soil and rock samples, drilling as deep as 2 meters under the surface. The mission will be launched by a Chang Zheng 5 rocket in late November, according to CNSA plans.
Liu was speaking at the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) 2017, which opened in Beijing on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The Chinese official also said the CNSA partnered with four nations to develop the scientific payload for the Chang'e 4 lunar probe.
Despite the smaller number in its designation, it is scheduled to be launched later than Chang'e 5, sometime in 2018. The mission was originally planned for 2015, but was repurposed to land on the far side of the moon instead. China plans to place a relay station at the Earth-moon Lagrange Point 2, a spot of gravitational stability, to serve the mission.
According to Liu, the Chang'e 4 payload includes 11 instruments. CNSA vice-administrator Wu Yanhua, who is also among the hosts of GLEX 2017, thanked the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and the European Space Agency (ESA) for their contribution to the mission.
"We support more international cooperation in China's future lunar and Mars missions, as well as exploration to the Jupiter system and asteroids that are still under discussion," Wu said.
The Chinese space program, which for years was aimed at ensuring Beijing's capability to conduct missions on its own, is gradually opening to international cooperation.
"China is expanding cooperation with the United Nations (UN) in space exploration, and will disclose projects later this year," said Yang Liwei, China's first space explorer, who now serves as deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
Chinese space station an alternative to ISS?Future joint projects between China and the UN's Office of Outer Space Affairs may include cosmonaut training and scientific research on China's future permanent space station, he added.
Beijing plans to launch the core module of the future station with a Long March 5 rocket in 2019 and have an operational space outpost by 2022, two years ahead of the possible retirement of the International Space Station.
When it is operational, the Chinese large modular space station will have a living module capable of supporting a crew of three for 40 days, and will contain two laboratory modules. The Shenzhou spacecraft will provide crew rotations while robotic Tianzhou space freighters will be used for resupply.
The Chinese station may become an alternative for joint space exploration, Xu Yansong, the CNSA's International Cooperation Department director, told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the conference.
"We have no certainty about the ISS, but we will have our own space station in orbit, and it will be opened for the international community," he said.
Reader Comments
Now that there is no limit to the technology available for a landing, the U.S. does not bother to try a landing. Three scenarios have been bouncing around the conspiracy world; 1) NASA didn't go initially and won't go now, 2) NASA did go but aliens chased them away, 3) NASA found nothing of value and can't be bothered to return
Any other ideas on why the U.S. does not bother to go (return) to the Moon?
By the way, there are many space programs performed by NASA now, but they are not as spectacular as they used to be (at least medially), so probably they serve some scientific and military roles mostly. They are also a way to funnel some public funds to friends, but this is normal with almost anything publicly funded.
The Hubble cost $1.5 Billion - SOFIA also cost about $1.5 Billion .... they produce the same images, the same results
The command officer in charge of Hubble "knew" it existed (for the 8 years he worked on the project) as there was a blinking dot on his monitor
The same laissez fare applies to the whole MIC and the fake wars .... So What if there isn't really any just clause, someone, somewhere will be back handed $$$$ and the merry go around will keep going
True, it would be better for the universe if humanity had its shite together in peace before we land on a new surface. Perhaps space is the thing to unite us?
I am sure NASA have volumes of information on discoveries made a bit closer to home but, like the Smithsonian Institution, NASA will probably never reveal all that they know or guess.
Given the unending series of fake events presented to us as reality, logic and common sense dictate that you consider the possibility that NASA is a sack of shit. It was filled from the beginning with Nazis and Freemasons, and is sucking $ 50 million PER DAY and returning nothing of value to us except antics in gorilla suits, medusa-haired women and men who can't even agree on whether space is deep blackness or intense whiteness.
I see no evidence that anybody has been to the Moon or even to space. I only see animations, photoshopped images and CGI, and hear only the testimony of Freemasons (all Apollo astro-nots except possibly Armstrong…his dad was a 33rd degree, though). All Apollo astro-nots were also military officers -- they took oaths to obey orders, they took oaths to keep secrets from us. Did they ever take an oath to tell us the truth? - LOL
NASA has been caught using green-screens and advanced VR tech to fake people being on the ISS. Why? Astronauts have almost drowned "in space", and water bubbles can clearly be seen in video after video.
NASA has lost all tech documents which could prove or disprove the technical ability to execute the Apollo missions. That is the behavior of people covering up a crime.
There are no satellites, there are thousands of balloons up around 60-62,000 feet. There was a couple of seconds delay in communicating with the men "on the Moon", but now there's a 10-second delay in chatting with the ISS. T he American manned space program is the only technology which has gone backwards in the last 50 years and you don't find this suspicious in the very least? If you think that the ISS contradicts this, you've probably forgotten Skylab, where there was an actual shower -- nowadays, the Americans on ISS have to bathe in recycled Russian piss.
I could go on and on, but your blood vessels are probably close to bursting now, as it is.
Wait, one more thing --- the USA and Russia are almost at war with each other, but they have no trouble co-operating in regards to the ISS or to Antarctica. The NWO is here, already - the big boys are in cahoots, pretending to be antagonists so as to provide fear-porn to their citizen-slaves.
It's time to realize that you've been hoodwinked. It hurts, but get over it.
It would be far harder to direct ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones without GPS ... but hey ho, it lets the slave workers travel from one workplace to another far easier