China lays out plan for future deep space exploration

SpaceDaily.com reports: “China has made an ambitious road map for its future lunar exploration programs, including an international scientific outpost, according to the programs’ chief planner. Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the next step in the country’s lunar adventure – the Chang’e 6 robotic mission – has been set to land on the moon’s far side and will collect and bring samples back.

‘If Chang’e 6 succeeds, it will become the first time for man to get samples from the far side,’ he said in a recent meeting with domestic media in Beijing.

After Chang’e 6, the Chang’e 7 robotic probe will be sent to land on the moon’s south pole to search for water and other resources.

‘The Chang’e 7 mission is set to look for traces of water on the south pole, investigate the environment and weather there, and survey its landform.

‘The probe will carry a ‘flyby craft’ tasked with flying into pits on the lunar surface to look for ice,’ said Wu, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering…”

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