China and Europe are looking to broaden their space partnership
under which the European Space Agency (ESA) is currently
collaborating on the Chang'e-1 project.
Rene Oosterlinck, ESA director of legal and external relations,
told China Daily that the agency is looking forward to
working with China in the second phase of the lunar orbiter
project, which will see an unmanned rover land on the moon.
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He said: "China's lunar program is welcomed by all space-faring
nations, because it is needed for better understanding of the moon
and finding the best place for building a permanent settlement
there."
Oosterlinck explained that Chang'e-1 is carrying a 3-D camera
for taking pictures of the moon, which no other country's lunar
programs have done.
"It is not like the Apollo project, which needed just a small
post for landing. We need to know what is the best place to stay
for years."
In the Chang'e-1 mission, the ESA has collaborated with the
Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) by mobilizing its ground
station network to provide direct support to the mission. Three
stations - in Spain, Australia and French Guiana - have been
rotating tracking duties during Chang'e-1's cruise since November
1.
BACC's chief engineer Wang Yejun said earlier that it is the
first time that BACC - the nerve center of the Chang'e mission -
has cooperated with an international body.
Earlier, during ESA's SMART-1 mission, which ended in September
2006 with the first spacecraft sent to the moon, the agency also
provided China with details of the spacecraft's position and
transmission frequencies. Chinese scientists then tested their
tracking stations and ground operation procedures by following
SMART-1, as part of the preparations for the launch of
Chang'e-1.
In addition to lunar exploration, China and the ESA have also
cooperated in a few projects in Earth space exploration, including
the Double Star Program and Dragon Program.
Signed in July 2001 by the China National Space Administration
(CNSA) and ESA, the Double Star Program enabled two Chinese
satellites to operate alongside four European satellites to explore
Earth's magnetosphere.
"The program has just ended. Now the next step is the
application and observation," Oosterlinck said.
The Dragon Program is a joint research program in the field of
remote sensing that started in September 2003. After being declared
a success, it will lead to a follow-up project called Dragon II, he
said.
The Dragon Program provided data from European satellites to
Chinese scientists for land, ocean and atmospheric
investigations.
"In the next stage, we will combine data from both Chinese and
European satellites for investigations on the environment," he
said.
The ESA is also proposing to put experimental facilities in a
Chinese capsule to be launched in outer space, where experiments
can be done in the microgravity environment, he said.
The ESA will conduct experiments such as formation of crystals
and mixing metals. If China agrees to it, the project is expected
to be launched in 2009 or 2010, he said.
(China Daily?November 10, 2007)
