China's plans of landing an unmanned spacecraft to the surface of the moon and then come back to Earth along with mined lunar dirt are now one step closer to their fruition.
On Sunday, Jan. 11, state media revealed that the Chinese spacecraft service module, which was earlier used in a test flight around the moon to send a prototype of a sample return capsule and come back to Earth, entered orbit around the Earth's natural satellite to collect additional data that will be used to plan for the Chang'e 5 mission in 2017.
The ambitious mission involves making a soft landing on the lunar orb to gather at least 2 kilograms of soil and rock samples to be brought home to Earth. China is also interested in mining the moon for a rare helium isotope, which experts claim may help meet global demands for energy in the future.
There are, however, skeptics about the idea of mining the moon even for energy resources.
"It's a fossil fuel reserve. Like mining all the coal or mining all the oil, once you've mined it ... it's gone," said Ian Crawford from Birkbeck College in London.
China's moon exploration program has already landed a spacecraft on the lunar surface, carrying a rover on board in 2013. It has also managed to launch two lunar orbs, albeit none of these were intended to return to Earth.
The service module from the country's circumlunar test entered the lunar orbit this week and now flies in an eight-hour orbit that brings it to a proximity of 125 miles from the moon's surface at the closest point and 3,293 miles away from the surface at the farthest point.
Zhou Jianlian, chief engineer of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, said that the module will make a second and third braking on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13 local time, which will enable it to enter a 127-minute orbit around the moon.
Aboard the service module is reportedly a camera system that was designed to help identify future landing spots for the Chang'e 5 mission.
On Oct. 24 last year, China's test lunar obiter was launched and circled the moon for eight days. By Nov. 1, a return capsule was ejected by the service module and parachuted to Earth.
The service module then headed to the Earth-Moon Lagrangian (L2) position after releasing the capsule, completing three circles around the point before proceeding for lunar orbit.
China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) vice director Zhao Wenbo said that it was the first time that a Chinese spacecraft was able to reach the L2 point.
