China sets 2024 as target for lunar walk

China has formulated a manned lunar mission by 2024 that will put an astronaut on the moon's surface; a superior Chinese scientist was quoted as saying in a Hong Kong newspaper.

The declaration by the lunar program's vice director, Long Lehao, indicates that long-term preparations are moving ahead for China's ambitious space program, which went into overdrive following China's first successful manned space mission in 2003.

Lehao - the Deputy Chief Designer of China's Lunar Exploration Project (CLEP) said on June 18 that China's Lunar Exploration Project is going well and “Cheng'e” is expected to be launched between March and April, 2007.

Named the project as "Chang'e" after a mythical Chinese moon-inhabiting fairy, the lunar program will get underway with the launch next spring of a 2-ton moon orbiting satellite, Long was quoted as saying in a newspaper. A robot explorer is to land on the moon's surface in 2017; he was further quoted as saying.

While attending the Fourth Fujian-China Project Fair, Long said that Chang'e has conquer four major difficulties in the engineering research process. Additionally, verification of the scheme and the designing of the preliminary sample have been finished. At the moment, the final sample is being made as scheduled. He anticipated to launch the mission before April, 2007 and to have on-the-orbit test between April and June, 2006.

There were four key difficulties during the research of Chang'e: the orbit design and the flight control, the tri-vector control of the satellite attitude; environment adaptability design of the satellite, the distance probing and communicating. Presently, all the four major difficulties have been overcome, and all the experiments go smoothly as slated.

Long predicted that China will get into the second phase of the Chang'e project between 2009 and 2015 after the Chang’e Project. By then there will be two to three times soft-landing exploratory actions. China is all set for that technically and economically.

The orbiter is due to stay in space not less than a year and record images of the lunar surface, study lunar microwaves, the distribution of usable metals, and the thickness of lunar soil.

In 2017, the third phase of Chang'e mission will send robot to the moon that will return with a chunk of the lunar surface on board. The program foresees landing a vehicle by 2020 on the moon that would collect soil samples and conduct other tests, possibly in preparation for a manned lunar base.

While, in 2024, during the final phase of the project, Chinese astronauts will set foot and come back from the moon.