SPACE WIRE
China maps out lunar exploration after successful manned flight
BEIJING (AFP) Oct 17, 2003
A day after becoming the world's third nation to send a man to space and bring him back safely, China's top space administrator Friday announced ambitious plans to explore the moon and build a new generation rocket.

"China's manned space activities will continue to develop, at the same time we want to increase the frequency of our projects to explore deep space," Luan Enjie, director of the China National Space Administration, said.

"First we are preparing to make a breakthrough in our 'lunar exploration project' and research and explore deep space, and exploring the moon is the first step in exploring deep space."

Luan's comments, posted on his administration's website, came a day after China's first astronaut Yang Liwei completed a 21-hour mission in space, circling 14 times around the earth aboard the Shenzhou V craft.

China is now the third country capable of manned space flight after Russia and the United States.

The achievement has caught the imagination of the nation with Yang already declared a national hero by China's top leaders.

The state press Friday saturated its coverage of the flight that had gone largely unreported prior to its secretive launch on Wednesday.

Although Luan said lunar exploration would be a priority of China's manned space program, he refrained from revealing any timetables or confirming earlier reports that China hoped to orbit the moon by 2008.

"First we have a plan to leave the earth and approach the moon some 390,000 kilometers (234,000 miles) away, and then orbit the moon and also make lunar exploration, we have this capability, our technology is ready," Luan said.

"We have fully demonstrated that we can carry out the first step ... (but) as far as landing and returning, this is rather complicated and difficult."

To fulfill such a mission, China would need to "revise and perfect" existing rocketry, re-research lunar exploration equipment and perfect the design and outfitting of independent control systems needed for lunar flight. he said.

On Thursday, Chinese space officials avoided setting a timetable for the next Shenzhou flight, saying only it would be "within one or two years." They also skirted questions on mission objectives and astronaut numbers.

However, they did say that coming priorities would include space walks and the rendezvous and docking of space ships, techniques that could be useful in the construction of a space station.

"We are discussing and researching how the development of space infrastructure facilities will make a bigger contribution to the state economy," Luan said.

"We need to strengthen coordination between space and Earth and build a unified comprehensive system (of) space-based infrastructure."

To place bigger payloads into space China is known to be developing a new generation of carrier rocket that uses liquid oxygen as fuel and will be capable of carrying a pay load of up to 15 tons.

Such a rocket would rival the carrying capacity of the US space shuttle and Russia's Proton rocket and could help China lift a heavy lunar probe into space as well as the building blocks of a permanent space station, experts have said.

"Considering our a new generation of carrier rockets, we must quickly study and make a new series of carrier rockets that are dependable, have greater lift capacity and use non-toxic, non-polluting fuels," Luan said.

"In the 11th five year plan (2006-2010), we will have a combined-type series of new carrier rockets based on a modularized construction," he said.

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