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 |  | Around the World, Nations Shoot for the Moon
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06:53 am ET
16 July 2004
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BOULDER, COLO. -- Earth’s aged and trodden moon is
the target of robotic spacecraft that will be launched by several countries
throughout the rest of the decade.
When U.S. President George Bush unveiled his new
vision for NASA earlier this year, Europe, Japan, China and India already were
planning expeditions there. In the years ahead cis-lunar space – the void
between the Earth and the moon – will be repeatedly traversed by craft of
varying degrees of sophistication and purpose.
The rationales of the nations that intend to explore
Earth’s only moon vary, but include the accumulation of science data, honing a
nation’s technological prowess, making a political statement or combinations of
all of those motivations.
All the planned new missions -- camera and sensor
sweeps of the cratered terrain, hurling penetrators at the surface and
collecting lunar rocks with roving robots – will help set the stage for the
return of humans to the moon, a feat that may no longer be the sole
preserve of the United States.
SMART Planning
One of Europe’s contributions, the European Space
Agency’s Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology, or SMART-1, is
already en route following a successful launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in
September 2003.
Using ion propulsion, this ESA lunar probe is slowly
making its way with a scheduled arrival date of Nov. 17. On that day the
spacecraft will ease itself into lunar orbit completing a 16-month journey
across cis-lunar space.
The purpose of the SMART-1 mission is to take a close
look into permanently shadowed lunar craters at the moon’s south pole to scan
for possible water ice. That resource, if it is there, is considered an
invaluable convertible currency because it can be broken down into its basic
elements: hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used to make rocket fuel, breathable
air and drinkable water.
ESA Project Scientist Bernard Foing envisions SMART-1
as a forerunner of things to come. “In the short term, we are building a good
collaboration with the countries interested in lunar exploration,” Foing said.
SMART-1 data will be shared with other countries to help shape future missions
to the moon, Foing said. That information will include surveys of lunar
resources, polar illumination data, characterizations of future landing sites,
terrain maps for rover scouts and data need to help mission planners plot out
logistics for future bases.
For the robotic phase, the next steps will be a
series of landers. Foing said it will be effective in this next phase to share
such things as data relay and a lander beacon.
“For this we should continue discussing common
technical standards between future landers, orbiters and rovers,” Foing said. “A
goal for the next decade is to prepare an international lunar robotic village
that can be more effective” than individual efforts,” he said.
Largest Post-Apollo
mission
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has two lunar
missions on the books: Lunar-A and the Selenological and Engineering Explorer,
or Selene for short.
Lunar-A had been scheduled for launch during Japan’s
2004 budget year. However, a decision has been made to postpone the launch date,
said Hitoshi Mizutani, Lunar-A project scientist at the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.
“The new launch date of Lunar-A is not fixed yet,
because we have to re-arrange many things, like launch windows, budget and
others,” Mizutani told Space News.
Selene's launch is still scheduled for 2006, and
preparation of that lunar spacecraft mission remains on schedule, Mizutani
said.
Lunar-A is designed to hurl missile-like impactors
down onto the moon’s near side and far side. These instrumented penetrators are
equipped to study the composition of the moon’s inner makeup. Selene is designed
to gather scientific data on the moon’s origin and evolution. This aggressive
project would be the largest mission to the moon after the Apollo program. It
consists of a main orbiting satellite and two small satellites, one for data
relay purposes, the other to chart the gravitational field around the
moon.
“I believe lunar exploration is scientifically very
important,” Mizutani said. “There are many reasons for it. But lunar exploration
is not solely of scientific value. It provides inspiration … dreams of human
extension to other worlds.”
India’s plans
India’s lunar probe, Chardrayaan-1, a project of the
Indian Space Rsearch Organization, is being prepared for liftoff by 2007-2008
and is devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface. It will
gather visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray imagery of the
moon.
Chardrayaan-1 is expected to have an operational life
of about two years as it maps the lunar terrain in three-dimensions and charts
the distribution of various minerals.
China’s Ambitions
Space officials in China have repeatedly stated that
exploring the Moon will be a multi-step effort, starting in late 2006. The
phased program would strengthen that country’s technological wherewithal, but
also is intended over the long term to out-distance other space powers in
utilizing the Moon in the 21st century. China kicked off an intensive study last
year on technologies required for exploring the moon, eyeing utilization of
lunar resources, such as Helium-3, as an energy source for Earth.
One of China’s top lunar scientists, Ouyang Ziyuan,
has sketched out his nation’s multi-part robotic plans to study the moon to the
year 2017.
Speaking before the 12th conference of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS) June 6 in Beijing, Ouyang said China has a three-step
plan for lunar exploration, according to an article the next day in China’s
People’s Daily Online, an English language Web site.
The first mission would be a lunar orbiter called
Chang’e I, which is named after a fabled fairy that flew to the moon.
Chang’e I would precisely map the moon in
three-dimensions, identify mineralogical elements, including Helium-3.
Environmental, topographical and other geological data would also be amassed.
Phase 2 will be development of an automated lander, Ouyang said.
A third phase would involve a robotic craft landing
on the moon, specially outfitted to snag and return select lunar samples
to Earth, he added.
After the three phases, Ouyang said, China would
consider how and when to launch a piloted moon mission.
In an interview published in March 2003 by People's
Daily Online, Luan Enjie, vice-minister of the Commission of Science, Technology
and Industry for National Defense and director of the China National Aerospace
Administration, said a Long-March 3A carrier rocket would be used to send
Chang’e I to the moon. That initial lunar exploration satellite would be based
on China’s DongFangHong 3 communications satellite platform, he said.
Various subsystems will also draw upon other
satellite technology now available in China, Luan reported.
Strategic target
“The moon is the first step beyond low Earth orbit
that any spacefaring nation is going to try to master,” said Mike Duke, a
geologist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo. The Europeans have
passed that mark, he added, so their lunar missions are described as technology
demonstrations.
Meanwhile, the Japanese are trying to display their
technical prowess in instrumentation. “They need to demonstrate a reasonable
launch capability to be considered a player in that arena. They’ve had some
problems, so maybe the lunar mission is a driver to keep the rocket folks
focused,” Duke said.
Duke said China and India have arrived at a place in
their development where they can do lunar missions and gain in stature among
spacefaring nations.
“I’m afraid that I don’t see that any of these really
involve the moon as a strategic target for exploration, though everyone is
looking for that strategic handle,” Duke said.
“I'm not sure what to make of it all in the grand
scheme of things,” said Paul Spudis, a planetary scientist at the The Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel,
Maryland.
A number of factors are stirring multi-nation lunar
interests, Spudis said. For starters, in the quest to get beyond low Earth
orbit, the moon is an easy first target. Then there’s the idea that, somehow,
the moon’s history is intimately tied to that of the Earth. Lastly, there is the
simultaneous emergence of space capabilities among industrialized
countries, as well as coincidence.
“Which predominates? I’m not sure,” Spudis said. “I’d
like to think that there is emerging recognition of the strategic value of the
moon. But although I do think that is present, it’s not the principal driver,”
said Spudis, who was a member of the President’s Commission on Implementation of
United States Space Exploration Policy, which advised the White House on how
best to move forward on a moon, Mars, and beyond human and robotic exploration
strategy.
“In fact, as far as the [Bush] Administration goes,
it is the principal driver of the vision, not a human Mars mission … in
contradistinction [contradiction] to the intense belief of many who work at
NASA,” he said.
Pointing to several nations that are hammering out
lunar exploration plans, Spudis said he senses that India’s program is an
attempt to promote space science and technology, and demonstrate that they are,
indeed, a 21st century, industrial nation. China has similar goals, he
said, but is focused more on servicing their “international inferiority complex”
to help underscore “that they too are a great nation.”
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