Chinese Researchers Work on Chang'e-7: The Next Lunar South Pole Mission
Chinese researchers are pushing ahead with research work on the follow-up Chang'e-7 lunar exploration mission to the Moon's south pole. The mission will include an orbiter, a lander, a mini-hopping probe, and a rover. They are also planning to send a flag that can flutter in the Moon's very thin and tenuous atmosphere after its predecessor Chang'e-6 brought back the first-ever samples from the far side, south pole of the Moon last year.
China plans to send its Chang'e-7 probe to find traces of water and ice at the Moon's south pole around 2026. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), also known as the Chang'e Project, after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Researchers are also proceeding with preliminary work on the Chang'e-8 mission and an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
The lab, co-established by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Anhui Province, and the University of Science and Technology of China, started operation in June 2022. It is headquartered in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui, and has a branch in Beijing. The laboratory aims to promote the long-term development of deep space exploration of the Moon, planets, asteroids, including the edge of the solar system.
Of course, on the Moon, there is no air to breathe, no breezes to make a flag flutter. However, the researchers are trying to use the interaction of electromagnetic fields to fly a flag on the Moon.
"We know that the Moon is vacuum with no air, so it is difficult to make a flag flutter by wind like on Earth. What's the primary school students' solution? That is to arrange closed loop wires on the surface of the flag with access to two-way positive and negative currents, and make the flag flutter through the interaction of electromagnetic fields," said Zhang Tianzhu, deputy head of the institute of future technology at the lab.
If all goes well, this will be the first flag to flutter on the surface of the Moon.
"Now, in order to complete the development of our popular science test payload in February, we are motivated and divided into different groups to advance this task," said Zhang.
"Our goal is to establish a sustainable and scalable comprehensive scientific experimental facility on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit, capable of long-term autonomous operation and short-term human participation, and to basically build an international lunar research station by around 2035," said Zhang.
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