China targets Moon base after landmark probe returns
FOLLOWING the successful return of Moon rocks by its Chang’e 5 robotic probe, China is preparing for future missions that could set the stage for a lunar base to host human explorers.
China’s next three lunar missions are on track, along with programs for returning samples from Mars and exploring asteroids and the planet Jupiter, Deputy Chief Commander of the China Lunar Exploration Program Wu Yanhua said. “Exploring the truth of the universe is just beginning,” Mr Wu said at a news conference held hours after the Chang’e 5’s capsule parachuted to a landing in Inner Mongolia, carrying the first lunar samples to be brought to Earth in more than 40 years.
The capsule had earlier separated from an orbiter module that had brought it back from the Moon.
Its return, a little over three weeks after lift-off, marked the latest breakthrough for China’s space programme, which the ruling Communist Party sees as a symbol of national pride. The military-backed programme has made huge strides since China became the third country after Russia and the United States to send an astronaut into space in 2003.
President Xi Jinping congratulated members of the Chang’e-5 mission and said it was a “great step forward” for China’s space industry. The mission will help to deepen understanding of how the Moon formed and how the solar system evolved, Xinhua, the state news agency, cited him as saying.
It makes China the third nation after the US and the former Soviet Union to bring back Moon samples – and the first since 1976, when the Soviet Luna 24 robot probe brought back 170 grams.
The samples were collected from a previously unexplored area of the Moon, and they are thought to be billions of years younger than those obtained in the Sixties and Seventies.
Last year, China became the first nation to land a space probe on the far side of the Moon, which cannot be seen from Earth. Its eventual goal is to land an astronaut on the surface, and possibly build a permanent base there.