2023-08-01 10:57:00
Chinese space scientists have revealed in a document how the lunar probe Chang’e-7 could conduct research on water ice in the shadow zone crater near the south pole of the Moon in the using a detection probe.
China plans to launch Chang’e-6 to land on the Moon around the end of 2024 to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, before Chang’e-7 is launched around 2026 to implement the resource exploration of the lunar south pole.
Orbital remote sensing and in situ sensing in permanent shadow areas of the lunar south pole should help probe the source, content and distribution of lunar water ice, according to the review article published in the journal Space: Science & Technology.
Researchers from the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the China National Space Administration said in the article that an analyzer molecule of water will be installed on a flying mini-probe in order to obtain water molecules from the frozen ground layer of the lunar surface.
According to their plan, the flying mini-probe will take off from the illuminated area of the Moon to the bottom of an impact crater in a permanent shadow zone.
A drilling tool mounted on the probe will then take samples of ice from the lunar soil, before a mechanical arm feeds them into a heating oven for spectral analysis.
The flying mini-probe can exceed the limits of traditional lunar rovers, which are unable to reach the bottom of the crater, and the measurement results will reveal whether the lunar soil at the bottom of the crater contains water, ammonia and other volatile materials, depending on the item.
In addition, two other science payloads are expected to be deployed on an orbiter to study water ice on the lunar surface, according to the article.
The exploitation of lunar water is considered a prerequisite for a sustainable human presence on the Moon and in deep space. However, the possible source of the lunar water ice is still unclear, making the mission scientifically necessary.
According to China’s lunar exploration program, the country plans to launch Chang’e-8 around 2028 to conduct experiments on lunar resource utilization and build the core module of the international lunar research station.
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