SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China
plans a manned lunar mission by 2024 that will include a walk on the moon's
surface, a top Chinese scientist was quoted as saying in a Hong Kong newspaper.
The program went into
overdrive following China's first successful manned
space mission in 2003 and may include a spacewalk by
an additional manned
mission next year.
Named "Chang'e'' after a
mythical Chinese moon-inhabiting fairy, the lunar program will begin with the
launch next spring of a 2-ton moon orbiting satellite,
the program's chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan was quoted as saying in the official
Shanghai Daily newspaper.
The orbiter is due to stay
in space at least a year and record images of the lunar surface, study lunar
microwaves, the distribution of usable metals, and the thickness of lunar soil.
Long, who is Ouyang's
deputy, was quoted by Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po on Monday as saying
the moon walk will be preceded by the landing of a robot explorer on the moon's
surface in 2017 that will return with a chunk of the lunar surface on board.
The program envisions landing a vehicle
by 2020 on the moon that would collect soil samples and conduct other
tests, possibly in preparation for a manned lunar base.
Ouyang said scientists
working on the lunar flights have overcome four major design hazards mainly
related to flight control and communications, according to the Shanghai
Daily.
The United States hopes to return astronauts
to the moon by 2018, nearly a half-century after men last walked the lunar
surface.
President Bush has called
for the retirement
of the space shuttles by 2010 and the creation of a crew exploration vehicle
for ferrying astronauts to the international space station and ultimately to
the moon and Mars.
The crew exploration
vehicle's first manned trip will be to low-Earth orbit, probably no earlier
than 2012, according to NASA plans.
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