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A giant electronic screen displays the mission operation information of China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe, which has been beset by mechanical troubles but which the government declared a success. Photo: Reuters

China poised to send spacecraft ‘to moon and back’

Unmanned craft will help prepare for a future mission to collect samples on the earth's nearest neighbour and return them home

China will send a spacecraft close to the moon in the next few days to test technology for use on a more ambitious mission to the earth's nearest neighbour.

The probe, Chang'e 5-T1, is preparing for a project due to take place in three years' time when an unmanned spacecraft will go to the moon, collect samples and then return home.

The latest probe is testing the technology needed for a spacecraft to re-enter through the earth's atmosphere, rather than burn up, and then land safely.

The test probe will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province sometime between tomorrow and Sunday, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, which is overseeing the project.

The key was to precisely slow the craft during re-entry to control where it would land, an unnamed source at the administration told Xinhua.

Professor Wang Jianyu , the deputy secretary general of the Chinese Society of Space Research, said a round trip to the moon would be a first for China but many technological obstacles had to be overcome.

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More precise control of the spacecraft was needed to ensure that it re-entered the earth's atmosphere safely, making the mission a challenge for scientists, he said.

The test probe will approach earth at a speed of 11km per second, or more than 30 times the speed of sound, according to a Xinhua report.

The re-entry speed of a Shenzhou spacecraft, the craft used in China's manned space missions, is almost a third slower.

The latest probe might set a record re-entry speed for China, according to a spacecraft researcher at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who asked not to be named.

The researcher said the mission was similar to the military's development of a hypersonic vehicle to carry missiles to the edge of the earth's atmosphere before returning to ground at huge speeds.

"There is no room for mistakes because a tiny error can redirect the spacecraft from remote grassland to a densely populated city, but China has accumulated a lot of experience on re-entry. There should be a lot of confidence for success," he said.

The mission in 2017 involves collecting rock samples from the moon's surface. Scientists have previously said it presents several technical challenges for China, including blasting a probe off the surface of the moon, docking with an orbiter and then getting the craft back to earth.

China's first astronaut went in space in 2003. Yang Liwei orbited the earth 14 times before returning safely.

The nation put a lunar rover on the surface of the moon in December last year, but it stopped moving soon into the mission.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Countdown to send probe by moon – and back
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