China to explore Moon's polar regions by 2030

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South pole of Moon (Representational Image)
South pole of Moon (Representational Image)

New Delhi : In the World Conference on Science Literacy 2018, Li Guoping, director of the Department of System Engineering of the CNSA, said that China is planning four missions for the fourth stage of its lunar exploration program. The literacy event was held in Beijing, the massive capital city of the country.

Named after the legendary Chang'e, a moon goddess accompanied by a jade rabbit, the lunar exploration program is going through utmost preparation since 2003. The first three stages of the program include orbiting and landing on the Moon, and bringing samples back to Earth.

Li said the fourth stage of the program will include sending the Chang'e-4 lunar probe to the far side of the Moon at the end of 2018, which is expected to become the world's first soft-landing, roving probe on the Moon's far side. 

A satellite named Queqiao (Magpie Bridge), for Chang'e-4 has entered a Halo orbit around the second Lagrangian (L2) point of the Earth-Moon system, about 65,000 km from the Moon in June

He also added that the other moon mission include bringing lunar samples back to Earth for the second time, landing on the South Pole region and the North Pole region.

Exploring the South Pole of Moon means to study the age of lunar soil, and the composition of the solar wind's isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, helium and oxygen; while the exploration to the North Pole aims to find out whether ice exists in the permanent shadow area, according to Li.

After completion of the scheduled target, China will plan to set up a scientific research station on the Moon. The country also aims to implement good number of robots and human lunar exploration mission in the future.