China reveals first details of its next manned moon landing mission

For the first time, China revealed details of its plans to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of this decade, the South China Morning Post reported. Media from the Asian giant announced that a rendezvous process will be used in lunar orbit similar to that adopted by the US Apollo program.

To carry out this rendezvous and docking maneuver in lunar orbit, China will send both the lander and the manned command and service spacecraft separately, on two rockets, and not on a single one, as the Americans did at the time. . If the mission is successful, China would be the second country to have achieved that feat.

Detailed plans

Zhang Hailian, deputy chief engineer of the Engineering Office of the China Manned Space Agency, explained to Chinese media that the astronauts will move from the command spacecraft to the lunar lander and descend to the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. . Upon completion of scientific investigations and sample collection, the crew will ascend the lander to lunar orbit to dock with the command spacecraft and return to Earth.

It also emerged that, for the mission, China is developing a heavy carrier rocket, a new generation of manned spacecraft, a lunar lander and a manned lunar vehicle. Likewise, Zhang noted China’s interest in establishing a research station to carry out “systematic and continuous lunar exploration and [pruebas] of related technology.

In December, Wu Yansheng, president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, had anticipated that China would possibly send three astronauts for the moon landing mission. While two of them would travel in the lunar landing module and set foot on the moon, the third would pilot the command spacecraft in lunar orbit.
Efficiency-based approach

The rendezvous process in lunar orbit optimizes payload transport, as the larger command spacecraft remains in orbit, and only the light lander performs the descent and ascent, so the amount of fuel required (non-useful load) is significantly reduced. Upon completion of the mission, the lunar lander is discarded following transfer of the crew and payload. With RT

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