Ouyang Ziyuan, a chief scientist of lunar applied science at China's "Chang'e Project" and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a fascinating speech at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics yesterday, unveiling the full view of China's moon probing project.
Ouyang said that China is currently in the first stage of lunar probing - unmanned lunar probing. This stage started in 2004 and will end in 2007. The main purpose is to realize unmanned lunar orbiting, that is, to launch a lunar orbit satellite. China is currently studying the lunar orbit satellite.
Chang'e I moon probing satellite has completed the design of blueprint and first draft. It will be the farthest prober ever launched by China and will work over 400,000 kilometers away in the space.
Ouyang revealed that China will consider manned lunar landing after 2017. In the lunar project, man is the most precious, and China must guarantee safe return of its astronauts in such a project. China is capable of sending astronauts to the moon at present but it is only a "single ticket." China has to prepare a "return ticket" before sending its astronauts to the moon.
As for when the first Chinese astronaut will set foot on the moon, Ouyang said China will be capable of realizing manned lunar landing between 2020 and 2025. After that, China will also plan to build a base on the moon.
(Chinanews.cn November 2, 2005)
