China and other countries are looking for water at the moon's south pole, and are developing a set of robotic spaceships to land there.
The Chang'e 7 lunar mission is planned to launch around 2024 and will survey the moon from the air and land at the lunar south pole.
The chief designer of China's lunar exploration program said during the country's annual political sessions in early March that a major goal is to find water at the south pole of the moon. If there was water, it could exist in the form of water ice due to the lack of sunlight throughout the year.
China's Chang'e 5 lunar lander is the first to find water on the moon.
Engineers are working on a special craft that can detach from a lander and fly or hop to look for water ice in nearby craters, China Daily reported.
The China National Space Administration's (CNSA) lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center in 2020 issued a call to Chinese institutes to develop the payloads for Chang'e 7.
The presence of water ice around the lunar south pole is a factor in NASA's plan to set up its Artemis Base Camp at the lunar south pole.
A suitcase-sized satellite will be carried by Artemis 1, a mission that will be launched by NASA's monster Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The moon will be illuminated with lasers to improve the understanding of the quantities and accessibility of water ice.
Setting down at the south pole of the moon will bring challenges for China and its Chang'e 7 mission, including identifying landing sites and making an accurate landing. There are not many flatlands at the south pole, so Change 7 requires a high precision of landing. The landing could be difficult.
The mission is far from being a one-off, with repeated visits and a possible permanent base among China's plans, which build on a series of lunar missions over the past 15 years. The country approved a three-stage lunar program in the early 2000s, with the first being the Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 orbiters.
The success of these missions and renewed international interest in the moon paved the way for the new round of lunar missions.
Chang'e 7 is mainly for the survey of lunar resources, such as water, the environment and climate, topography and landform of the lunar south pole.
Chang&e 6 will attempt to collect samples from the lunar south pole and deliver them to Earth.
3D printing on the moon will be one of the technologies tested by Change 8. A future lunar base will need to be verified.
We hope to analyze and study the existence of resources on the spot, which will lay the foundation for long-term work on the moon in the future. The mission's time frame is stated as being before 2030.
China and Russia plan to establish a robotic research station on the moon, which will later host astronauts for long-term stays. International partners have been invited to join the project by the two countries. With Russia invading Ukraine, cooperation looks doubtful.
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