No plans for men on moon
26/10/2007 9:02
China has no plan or timetable for a manned moon landing for now, senior
lunar scientists said yesterday, a day after the nation launched its first lunar
probe, Chang'e 1.
"A manned moon landing is a project with great
difficulties, high risks and astronomical costs. A wish-list approach is not the
way to go about it," said Luan Enjie, chief commander of the lunar orbiter
project.
"Many factors have to be taken into account to carry out such a
project, such as economic budgets, our technology and whether it is important
for current scientific studies," Luan said.
"So, it's too early to talk
about manned landings on the moon," he added.
Chang'e 1, named after a
legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A
carrier rocket at 6:05pm on Wednesday from the No. 3 launch tower at the Xichang
Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.
The satellite
launch marks the first step of the nation's three-stage moon mission, which will
lead to an unmanned moon landing and launch of a moon rover around
2012.
In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return
to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research by
2017.
Sources with the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for
National Defense said that work has finished on an overall plan for carrying out
the second phase of the moon program.
But according to Sun Laiyan, deputy
head of the commission, China is still far from capable of sending a man to the
moon.
In addition, it is a very complicated process from manned space
flight to manned moon landing, and tough technological problems need to be
solved such as allowing taikonauts to exit the spacecraft, rendezvous and
docking of the spacecraft, the return of taikonauts from the lunar surface, and
survival on the moon, said Sun Jiadong, chief designer of the lunar orbiter
project.
Xinhua
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