Posted on 08/10/2007 2:46:41 PM PDT by LibWhacker
China plans to survey all of the moon's surface before eventually bringing bits of it back to Earth, state media reported Friday.
A full moon is visible in this 2005 view above the Earth's horizon. China plans to survey all of the moon's surface before eventually bringing bits of the planet back to Earth. [File]
"We would like to survey every inch of the moon's surface," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of the China's moon exploration project, was quoted as saying on the website of Chinese News Service.
Ouyang, speaking at a conference in southwestern China this week, said China's lunar exploration programme was divided into three phases: orbiting the moon, landing on the lunar surface and coming back to Earth with samples.
China hopes to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to survey it systematically and after that, will attempt to collect samples of it bring back to Earth, he said.
China's space agency chief, Sun Laiyan, said earlier this year that the country aimed to launch its first lunar orbiter in the second half of 2007.
"The moon probe project is the third milestone in China's space technology after satellite and manned spacecraft projects, and a first step for us in exploring deep space," the China National Space Administration head said.
The orbiter represented the first phase, with a moon rover to be used in the second phase scheduled for around 2012, reports said.
The plan for the third phase was for another rover to land on the lunar surface and collect samples before returning to Earth.
China would continue to research manned space missions, including a space walk and experiments to link passing spacecraft, he said.
In 2003 China successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.
Its space ambitions have continued to grow and China announced in March that it would launch a joint mission with Russia to Mars in 2009.
“Well Russia just claimed the north poll.”
I didn’t realize they had voting booths up there.
If their spacecraft are built anything like their cars, they never will....
Is ‘every inch’ of the Earth even surveyed?
After reading this exceptionally written article, I have a hunch China is going to map every inch of the moon. sarc/
Did you zoom the google map all the way to maximum resolution? Try it.
We had 40 years on all of them. Now it’s a race and we’re not in it.
Parts of it. They will dump the Treaty at the same time.
The ChiComs are given to spewing hyperbole, poisonous toothpaste and deadly dog food. Otherwise they are crap.
Don't underestimate them though, they may be able to steal enough technology to make up for what they can't import to be dangerous some day.
“If their spacecraft are built anything like their cars, they never will....”
I have to smile at that thought :)
they don’t have to steal much at all....the clintonistas provided them with guidance technology as well as stageing technology....they can now make ICBM’s which they couldn’t do before!!!
An excellent point - How I do remember.
Yup. < |:)~
We already planted our flag :-)
You think we have a problem with academic grants, imagine China.
They will employ 10,000 surveyers and grad students to survey and record the details of every single square inch of the moon.
We already planted our flag :-)
THAT was on Mars!
S.J.Lee
Or was it New Mexico or maybe Hollywood Studio 7 ?
;-)
how come chinese nationalism is ok,
but american nationalism
is not ok?
The bureaucrats who staff China’s version of NASA aren’t stupid. They’ve learned that to get big investments, they’ve got to promise the moon. Just wait till the Chinese government spends $50b and gets to where we are today - 30 years later. I sure hope they go down that rabbit hole. Better that they throw their money away on moon-related research than allocate it to new and improved weaponry.
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