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China is aiming to land its taikonauts on the surface of the Moon by 2030.
Illustration of the Wangshu Chariot Moon buggy concept. (Image Credit: Tsinghua University).
New Delhi: After committing to foster international collaborations for a thriving spacefaring community at the International Astronautical Congress 2024 in Milan, Italy last month, and debuting fancy new spacesuits for Moon Walking, China is now announced plans to fast track its crewed lunar exploration programme. The China Manned Space Agency announced in a press conference that it is accelerating the development and construction efforts to realise the goal of landing a crewed lander on the surface of the Moon by 2030. China is developing brand new hardware to reach the lunar surface, including the Mengzhou or ‘Dream Boat’ crew module and a lander dubbed Lanyue or ‘Embracing the Moon’.
The mission will be lifted by the Long March 10 rocket, which has undergone ground-based tests of prototypes. Ground-based tests of Mengzhou and Lanyue have also been conducted, along with the spacesuits to be used for extravehicular activities by lunar explorers, and a crewed lunar rover as well. China has announced that it has completed an integrated airdrop test for the spacecraft, a separation test of the two modules of the lander, a test firing of the three-engine power system on the first stage of the rocket, and a high-altitude simulation for the hydrogen-oxygen engine.
Bringing together the many elements for a crewed lunar mission
China has also finalised the pre-launch test flight schedule, the payloads and the objectives for the precursor flights before the crewed landing mission. China has constructed ground systems for the crewed mission, and set up equipment necessary for telemetry and control communication. The lunar lander is being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology in collaboration with the China Academy of Space Technology. The planned mission profile is to launch a pair of Long March 10 rockets, one for Mengzhou, and one for Lanyue, both to lunar orbit, where the taikonauts will transfer to the lander for accessing the lunar surface, return to Moon orbit, and transfer back to the spaceship for the hop back to Earth. China has also started training astronauts for its Moon mission.
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