China, Japan ready lunar probes for '07

By Leonard David

Senior Space Writer

updated 4:43 p.m. ET Jan. 2, 2007

A renewal of robotic lunar exploration is ready for liftoff in 2007 — and not by the United States. This year, China is set to launch its first lunar orbiter, followed by the summer sendoff of a mega-powerful mooncraft from Japan.

Both nations are kick-starting a barrage of robotic survey ships that shoot for the moon, including lunar missions by India and the United States in 2008.

As global interest in the moon grows, so too does the call for multi-nation collaboration in robotic and future human exploration of Earth’s neighboring natural satellite.

China is wrapping up fabrication next month of Chang’e I to be sent spaceward atop a Long March 3A rocket.

The lunar orbiter design — based on their Dongfanghong III satellite platform — is reportedly headed for an April departure from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province.

According to Chinese news services, once Chang’e I circles Earth for nearly 8 hours, the spacecraft will then depart on its journey, taking 114 hours to reach orbit around the Moon.

While precise specifications about onboard science gear is not widely known, Chinese space planners have explained in broader terms the goals of the mission. The craft will yield 3D images of the moon’s surface, probe the distribution of 14 “usable elements” on the moon, gauge the temperature of the moon, estimate the depth of the lunar crust, as well as study the space environment between Earth and the moon. The lunar orbiter is designed to carry out a one-year mission.

Chang’e I’s price tag has been given by Luan Enjie, chief commander of China’s lunar probe project. According to the People’s Daily Online, Luan has contrasted the lunar probe’s cost of $175.5 million to building 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) of subway.

Chang’e I is China’s first step in a multi-pronged Moon program. Over the next 10 years, Chinese space officials have called for a lunar rover, followed by a lunar sample return mission.

This summer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to launch that nation’s lunar orbiter via an H-IIA booster.

Dubbed the Selenological and Engineering Explorer, this hefty Moon orbiter is billed by JAXA officials as the largest lunar mission since the Apollo humans-on-the Moon program that ended in 1972.

Tipping the scales at three tons in weight — including two sub-satellites each weighing roughly 110 pounds (50 kilograms) — SELENE is built to gather scientific data about the moon. The SELENE effort consists of a Main Orbiter and the smaller spacecraft that, among duties, can help advance knowledge about the Moon’s gravity field.

JAXA’s Yoshisada Takizawa, SELENE Project Manager, said the orbiter will use the very latest, high performance mission instruments, observing the crater laden Moon via 14 sensors during its one-year mission.

At the Moon, those sensors can reveal the distribution of the elements and minerals on the lunar surface; the surface and sub-surface structure; the gravity field; the remnant of the magnetic field; and the environment of energetic particles and plasma of the Moon.

“By integrated and interdisciplinary scientific research of the data, it will reveal the moon’s elemental composition, internal construction, differences in geographical features on both sides, the transition from the molten state that is assumed to have happened after its birth, and its volcanic history,” Takizawa pointed out on a JAXA Web site.

“Through these research activities, it is hoped we can get closer to the core of the mystery of the origin and evolution of the moon,” Takizawa emphasized.

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