China to launch lunar probe next April
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-04-27 22:19
GROUND CONTROL
Luan Enjie, chief commander of the lunar exploration centre, said on Thursday
there were still problems to work out.
A Long March 4-B carrier rocket lifts off at
6:48 am Thursday, April 27, from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North
China's Shanxi Province. The rocket successfully sent a remote
sensing satellite into its preset orbit. An official with the
Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a major developer of both the
satellite and the rocket, said the 2.7-ton satellite will be mainly used
for scientific experiment, survey of land resources, appraisal of crops
and disaster prevention and alleviation.
[Xinhua] |
Among them were how to remotely control the craft, how to handle widely
varying temperatures on the moon, and how to coordinate gear that needed to be
pointed in a specific direction, such as solar panels and communication
equipment.
More generally, he said China was working on ways to standardise its rockets
and increase their thrust, which he said was too small at about nine tonnes.
China also had too many types of satellites and the quality was not high enough,
he said.
Investment in the lunar exploration programme so far was less than 1.5
billion yuan ($187 million), he said. He did not give a figure for the total
budget.
China's total annual investment in its space programmes was roughly $500
million, another Chinese space official said on a visit to the United States
earlier this month.
In the United States, the Bush administration announced a $104 billion plan
in September to return Americans to the moon by 2018. Its Apollo programme
carried the first humans to the moon in 1969.
Japan has also announced plans to land a person on the moon by 2025.
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