China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week
By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist | October 14, 2014 07:00am ET
China’s lunar sample program involves upcoming re-entry capsule test to evaluate high-speed plunge into Earth’s atmosphere. |
The upcoming launch of the Chang'e 4 mission is expected to take place Oct. 23 from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, and will apparently send an experimental, recoverable probe to lunar orbit and back. The goal is to validate re-entry technology for Chang'e 5, a future robotic mission that will land on the moon, collect samples and return those specimens to Earth.
According to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, the soon-to-fly craft is a backup probe of Chang'e 3 — the nation's first moon lander and rover, which successfully touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor in December 2013.
Chang'e 4 will be adapted to verify technologies needed for Chang'e 5, the third step in China's methodical moon-landing program, according to Chinese news agencies.
"We have begun to study how the Chang'e 5 will blast off from the moon and dock with the in-orbit re-entry capsule," said Wang Pengji, a space expert at the China Academy of Space Technology.
China’s newest moon probe arrived in August at the Xichang launch site, according to a statement from the administration.
Onboard China's moon-bound booster is a hitchhiking payload provided by the European space technology company OHB AG. This private "4M mission" to the moon is dedicated to OHB founder Manfred Fuchs, who died earlier this year. (4M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission.)
Technical management of the 4M mission is led by LuxSpace of Luxembourg, an affiliate of OHB AG. LuxSpace chiefly develops microsatellites and actively participates in the OHB System-led Small GEO initiative.
The 31-pound (14 kilograms) 4M probe is designed to fly by the moon and then return Earthward.
An additional instrument will measure radiation levels throughout the satellite's trajectory around the moon, using a special chip provided by Spanish company iC-Málaga.
The 4M lunar flyby amateur radio payload was shipped to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Oct. 2.
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