As China prepares to rocket its first space traveler into Earth orbit, the country's space officials also appear keen in lobbing a robotic probe to the Moon within three years.

The probe would be called Chang'e - named after a mythical lady who flew to the Moon for a lonely but peaceful and harmonious life.

The October 6 edition of the People's Daily noted China's ambitions to hurl a spacecraft to the Moon in three years.

"China will continue to develop its space exploration plans. At a future time, China will carry out lunar landing and flight experiments," Wang Shuquan, deputy secretary of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, was quoted from an original story appearing in the Beijing Youth Daily.

Earlier this year, leading Chinese space experts were quoted by the People's Daily about a three-phase Moon program: orbiting, landing, and returning from the Moon lunar samples. In another article, Ye Peijian of the China Research Institute of Space Technology stated that progress is being made on a lunar prospecting satellite.

Ye was reported to say that work on the satellite had begun in April of last year. Ten key task teams had been assigned duties to ready a lunar probe, he added.

China's lunar exploration project needs careful consideration, cautions a Chinese space expert.

Senior space scientist, Hu Wenrui of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Mechanics, has urged prudence in orchestrating any lunar robotic program. He commented on China's burgeoning lunar aspirations in an interview with the Chinese-language newspaper, Science Times.

"It would be unlikely for us to make a significant research breakthrough from the current projects of lunar exploration," Hu noted. The expert in microgravity research underscored Japan's Selene project to the Moon in 2005, a probe loaded with science gear and first-rate objectives.

Hu said it seems impossible for newcomers like China to contrive a more sophisticated Moon exploration project and obtain better data. Since Selene's science data would be publicly available, repeated observation without innovative or scientific breakthrough would be insignificant and a waste of scientific resources, he explained in the interview.

Moreover, contrasted to the United States, Europe, and Japan, Hu said that China is short in expertise in space exploration. Many Chinese scientists are novices in this arena, he said, as they shifted to the field only a few years ago, the Science Times article states.

"I have no objection to China's launching of a spacecraft for lunar exploration," Hu states.

Since all space activities of China have been carried out in near-Earth space, "our space activities have to expand to further and further." In that sense, it is not so much a scientific exploration as an experiment, Hu points out.

A member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Hu urges that China's Moon survey plans have clearly defined objectives and goals, matched with the right instruments to do the job. Also, he said it would be prudent to search for research breakthroughs, not repeat the work of others.

The most important is "to put the lunar exploration project into the overall consideration of the national development of space science or even the nation's [science and technology] plan as a whole," Hu stresses. "If we want to catch up with the forerunners in this field, we must highlight our priorities."

In the Science Times interview, Hu calls for more attention to be placed on space astronomy and solar-terrestrial studies. "The disciplinary layout for our space science should be drawn up from the overall situation of the whole country."