China aims to explore the south pole of the moon in 2026. To begin exploring the Moon’s south pole, China accelerated its progress toward designing a new moon rover. In the Chang’e-7 expedition, the lunar rover will target the moon’s south pole and far side. Before China’s Chang’e-7 expedition, the Yutu 2 robot was also set off for exploring the lunar far side in 2019. In addition to a new moon rover, Chang’e 7 will consist of an orbiter, a lander, and a small, flying detector that can reach shaded areas in craters to look for water ice deposits.
The moon rover, represented by the spacecraft, is equipped with essential features such as a panoramic webcam and a surface radar, similar to Yutu 2. However, it distinguishes itself by incorporating a magnetic sensor and a Raman spectrometer in place of the visible and infrared spectrometer and the energetic neutral atom analyzer that Sweden supplied for Yutu 2’s mission.
What are the principal goals of the moon rover?
China’s Chang’e 7 mission’s scientific goal is to research the moon. The rover will be exploring and investigating the moon’s surface environment and water ice in its soil. It will help the researchers in the deep investigation and study of the Moon’s morphology, structure, and formation. To explore and research the Moon’s internal structure, gravitational pull, and thermodynamic properties. The overall investigation and study of the surface environment of the Moon’s south pole. Examination and investigation of the Earth’s magnetic field direction and plasmasphere from the moon.
What does Tang Yuhua say about this mission?
Deputy Chief Designer of Chang’e 7 and the moon rover “Tang Yuhua”, of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of China, told CCTV. The rover will also be more independent.
“The rover of the Chang’e 7 is slightly larger than that of the Chang’e 4 in scale. It is designed to carry different instruments, and is of roughly the same structure,”
“It’s more intelligent. The original rover had more ground intervention, and now the path planning will be more autonomous,” Tang said.
What is China planning after Chang’e 7 launch?
China will attempt to use its Chang’e 6 mission to gather samples from the far side of the moon rover South Pole-Aitken Basin before the Chang’e 7 launch. The 2020 Chang’e 5 mission was a success. The moon rover collected samples from the lunar near side and returned them to Earth using the spacecraft initially as a backup. After that, Chang’e 8 will be launched in 2028 and will test 3D printing and local resource utilization technologies. The goal of that mission is to lay the groundwork for the 2030s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project.
