China is planning
to launch a second spacecraft to explore the moon even as its first lunar
orbiter continues to map the lunar surface, the country's state-run media
has reported.
The new
probe, Chang'e 2, is slated to launch sometime in 2009, according to reports by
the Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television. Ye Peijian,
lead designer and commander of China's Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter currently circling
the moon, announced plans for the second mission, but provided little additional
details, Xinhua reported.
Chang'e 1 is
a 5,180-pound
(2,350-kg) satellite that launched Oct. 24 from China's Xichang Satellite
Launch Center in the southwest Sichuan Province to spend about one year mapping
and studying the moon. The spacecraft is based on China's Dongfanghong 3
telecommunication satellite platform and equipped with eight primary instruments,
though Ye did not state whether its Chang'e 2 successor would be based on a
similar design.
But the success
of Chang'e 1 to date, especially its survival of a Feb. 20 eclipse that
starved its power-generating solar panels of sunlight, have been under
discussion, according to a series of reports by Xinhua and other
outlets.
"Chang'e 1
passed the test," Xinhua quoted Ye as saying after last month's total
lunar eclipse. The eclipse forced the lunar orbiter to consume about 40 percent
of its overall battery power, less than the 60 percent expected before the
eclipse, and left it out of contact with flight controllers in Beijing for about
49 minutes, Xinhua reported.
The eclipse
left the lunar probe without direct sunlight for about 80 minutes, though it
did fire its rocket engine to tweak its orbital path to minimize the time in
shadow, Gu Shen, deputy director of Chang'e 1's measurement and control systems,
told Xinhua.
On. Feb.21,
Chang'e 1 beamed home its complement of 30 songs as part of China's Lantern
Festival celebration to mark the end of the country's Lunar New Year
festivities, Xinhua reported.
China's
Chang'e 1 spaceflight is part of a three-stage plan to
explore the moon with orbiting spacecraft, rovers and ultimately a sample
return mission.
The China
National Space Administration is also preparing to launch the nation's third
manned mission, Shenzhou 7, later this year. China is only the third country
after Russia and the U.S. to launch astronauts into orbit. The country's first
astronaut Yang Liwei launched into orbit in 2003 during the Shenzhou 5 mission,
with a two-astronaut crew following aboard Shenzhou 6 in 2005.
Shenzhou 7
is expected to launch three astronauts into space and feature China's first
spacewalk. Hardware tests of the mission's airlock and spacesuits have met with success, according to past Xinhua
reports.
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