China News Service, Nanjing, April 24 (Guo Chaokai) The main forum of the 2021 China Aerospace Conference was held in Nanjing, Jiangsu on the 24th.
Hu Hao, chief designer of the third phase of China's lunar exploration project, said at the meeting that the Chang'e-6 mission is planned to be implemented around 2024.
The Chinese lunar exploration project was officially launched in 2004. With the implementation of the project, the myth of "Chang'e flying to the moon" gradually came into reality.
In the past 17 years, China has successively launched a number of probes, including Chang'e-1 to Chang'e-5, and successfully completed the three-step strategy of China's lunar exploration project of "circumnavigating, descending, and returning".
The follow-up Chang'e 6, 7, and 8 missions have attracted much attention from the outside world.
Hu Hao introduced that the Chang'e-6 detector, as the backup of Chang'e-5, had completed the development of its main products in 2017.
In accordance with the principles of "adaptive improvement, technological advancement, achievable engineering, and acceptable funding", after research, the Chang'e-6 mission is planned to be implemented around 2024.
It is reported that on April 18, 2019, the China National Space Administration issued the "Chang'e-6 Mission International Load Carrying Cooperation Opportunity Announcement". Four payloads including the French radon detector, the lunar surface water ice occurrence research device jointly applied by Russia and China, the Swedish lunar negative ion detector and the Italian laser ranging angle reflector are included in the preliminary selection.
After the detailed plan of the Chang'e-6 mission is clarified, the carrying project will be finalized.
Hu Hao said that the moon is the only natural satellite relative to the earth, capable of long-term, stable, large-scale, and real-time monitoring of the earth. It is also a training ground for outer space observatories and deep space exploration technologies.
The moon is the stepping stone and support point for China's aerospace to move into deep space, and China will carry out follow-up exploration around the scientific application of the moon.
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