{"id":19122,"date":"2016-12-27T19:57:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T11:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/china-lays-out-plans-to-put-probe-on-moons-far-side-in-2018-and-on-mars-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2016-12-27T19:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T11:57:32","slug":"china-lays-out-plans-to-put-probe-on-moons-far-side-in-2018-and-on-mars-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/china-lays-out-plans-to-put-probe-on-moons-far-side-in-2018-and-on-mars-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"China lays out plans to put probe on moon\u2019s far side in 2018 \u2013 and on Mars in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_299005\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-299005\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-299005\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161227-change-moon-china-630x341.jpg\" alt=\"China's Chang'e 4 spacecraft\" width=\"630\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161227-change-moon-china-630x341.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161227-change-moon-china-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161227-change-moon-china.jpg 805w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-299005\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows the Chang\u2019e 4 spacecraft landing on the moon. (CCTV via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>China\u2019s latest white paper on space exploration confirms the country\u2019s plans to send&nbsp;a rover to the moon\u2019s far side in 2018 and put&nbsp;a rover on Mars in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, says the Chang\u2019e 4 mission will \u201cconduct in-situ and roving detection and relay communications at Earth-moon L2 point\u201d in 2018, the official China Daily newspaper reported.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, NASA\u2019s Grail probes crash-landed on the moon\u2019s far side&nbsp;\u2013 the so-called \u201cdark side\u201d that never faces Earth. However, no spacecraft has made a soft landing on the moon\u2019s normally hidden half. Communicating with such a spacecraft would require using a&nbsp;relay satellite, such as the one that China plans to send to the L2 gravitational balance point beyond the moon for Chang\u2019e 4.<\/p>\n<p>Chang\u2019e is the name of the mythological Chinese moon goddess, and the name has been used for China\u2019s three previous lunar missions as well. The most recent mission in the series, Chang\u2019e 3, sent a lander and the Yutu rover to the moon\u2019s near side in 2013.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"China to land new probe on dark side of moon in 2018\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JL-tyjmBbxw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Yet another robotic spacecraft, Chang\u2019e 5, is being prepared to&nbsp;make a lunar landing, collect samples and send&nbsp;them back to Earth. The white paper says Chang\u2019e 5 will be launched by the end of 2017. Chinese space officials had originally envisioned Chang\u2019e 4 as a backup to Chang\u2019e 3, but the spacecraft was&nbsp;repurposed for the far-side mission. As a result, 5 is due to come&nbsp;before 4.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of the Chang\u2019e program is to study the geology of the moon, look for resources that the moon could offer for further exploration&nbsp;\u2013 and not incidentally, to demonstrate China\u2019s technological prowess.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next five years, China plans to move ahead with efforts to develop&nbsp;new lines of launch vehicles.&nbsp;\u201cEndeavors will be made to research key technologies and further study the plans for developing heavy-lift launch vehicles,\u201d according to the white paper, which is&nbsp;titled \u201cChina\u2019s Space Activities in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe white paper sets out our vision of China as a space power, independently researching, innovating, discovering and training specialist personnel,\u201d China Daily quoted Wu Yanhua, deputy chief of China\u2019s National Space Administration, as saying during a news conference.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"China unveils its 2020 Mars probe\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6_HXtIRayQ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the heavy-lift rockets, China will look into building non-polluting medium-lift rockets and a reusable transportation system for reaching low Earth orbit.&nbsp;The country plans to complete deployment of its 35-satellite BeiDou constellation for global navigation by 2020, and launch a lander and a rover to Mars in that year.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese space officials have previously said that a full-fledged space station known as Tiangong 3 would be put into orbit in the 2020s, and that Beijing\u2019s space program could put astronauts on the moon by the mid-2030s. However, in a report from UPI, Wu said the program will require private investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter six decades of development, government investment alone is not enough to let China\u2019s aerospace program to advance technological progress and benefit the economy and society,\u201d UPI quoted Wu as saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows the Chang\u2019e 4 spacecraft landing on the moon. (CCTV via YouTube) China\u2019s latest white paper on space exploration confirms the country\u2019s plans to send&nbsp;a rover to the moon\u2019s far side in 2018 and put&nbsp;a rover on Mars in 2020. Today\u2019s white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, says the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1942,135,625],"class_list":["post-19122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-change","tag-china","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}