China says its mission to the moon has been successful and is paving the way for a future mission that will bring back lunar soil and rock samples. This is the first time vehicles have landed on the moon in almost four decades.
Listen“China now is really entering a very elite club of space-faring nations which only included the U.S. and the old Soviet Union of actually being a nation…able to send a spacecraft to land on another world,” said Canadian Andrew Fazekas, astronomy columnist with National Geographic News.
Researching the moon and developing technology
Chang’e 3 set down on the moon on Saturday to conduct scientific research for a year. Its accompanying rover is surveying the moon’s structure and probing for natural resources. The mission is designed to develop the technology for robust space exploration and so far, Chinese officials say they have made seven technological breakthroughs.
Search for rare minerals
China will probe for rare earth minerals like uranium, titanium and helium, the last of which is needed for rocket fuel development. It may eventually set up a mining operation. The U.S. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is currently orbiting the moon to detail its features and that country too may eventually build a lunar outpost.
China has ramped up its efforts to develop space technology with an eye to building a manned orbiting space station by 2020, which is about the same time the current International Space Station should be decommissioned. China is not a partner in the ISS.
China mission makes a political statement
Meanwhile China would like to put someone on the moon sometime in the middle of the next decade. “There’s no doubt there’s international prestige at stake, national pride of course,” says Fazekas. “You talk to a lot of experts. They believe that China’s making a political statement about their growing economic, geopolitical, and scientific clout.”
China’s success and the apparent rapid expansion of its space program may spur other nations to move up their plans for space exploration, says Fazekas.
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