To infinity and beyond: China to launch next moon mission this week

China is set to launch a robotic moon mission this week, a “trial by fire” test of re-entry technology for the country’s future lunar sample-return efforts. To date there has been little official word on this unmanned mission, which may launch as early as today. It will apparently send a spacecraft around the moon. On its way back to Earth, the probe will release a capsule to perform a high-speed plunge through the planet’s atmosphere. The capsule will then parachute onto terra firma to complete its voyage. The mission, which some China space watchers are calling “Chang’e 5 T1,” is to last some nine days.

We have begun to study how the Chang’e 5 will blast off from the moon and dock with the in-orbit re-entry capsule.

Wang Pengji, a space expert at the China Academy of Space Technology

The goal is to validate re-entry technology for Chang’e 5, a robotic mission targeted for a 2017 launch that will land on the moon, collect samples and return those specimens to Earth. China is pursuing a step-by-step robotic moon exploration program, one that would appear to also sharpen the country’s technological know-how to land humans on the moon. Yu Dengyun, deputy chief designer of China’s lunar probe mission, told the state-run Xinhua news agency earlier this month that the Chang’e 4 moon mission will also verify technology for Chang’e-5.

Science