The future Chinese apparatus will deliver insects and plants to the moon

The future Chinese apparatus will deliver insects and plants to the moon

The Chinese lunar rover is part of the upcoming mission of Chang'e-4 to the far side of the moon

It will not be superfluous to recall that we live in an era of active space exploration. In recent years, interest in the moon has been revived. Now, not only Trump is set up to return astronauts to the satellite, but space agencies of other countries are focused on similar missions.

An interesting example is the Chinese program CLEP or Chang'e. The name was given in honor of the ancient Chinese moon goddess. The program has already launched two orbital and one landing gear. At the end of this year, it is planned to deliver the mechanism to the far side of the satellite, where it will study the local geology and verify the effect of satellite gravity on insects and plants.

The mission will consist of an orbiter launched in June 2018. This is a repeater, which will be installed on the L2 point (Lagrange), and in six months they will lower the landing gear and the rover. Among the tools will add a container of aluminum alloy, which will place the seeds (potatoes, arabidopsis) and insects (silkworm eggs).

In addition, the mission will for the first time touch the uncharted side of the moon. This is the South Pole - Aitken basin, stretching 2500 km in diameter and 13 km in depth. He is interested in scientists, because there is a lot of water ice here. It is believed that this is the result of meteors and asteroids. It does not come in direct sunlight, so the ice has never been subjected to sublimation or chemical dissociation. The region has been studied from orbit since the 1960s. Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17, LRO and Indian Chandrayan-1. The last mission lowered a probe to the surface and confirmed the presence of water ice in Aitken crater.

The new project will provide more information about the local landscape and assess the survival of terrestrial organisms during lunar gravity (16% of ours). Analysis of the ISS showed a negative impact on health, but so far little is known about the long-term consequences.

The European Space Agency also announced the possibility of creating an International Lunar Village in the southern polar region by 2030s. Representatives of NASA in 2014 also talked about this.

If everything goes well with Chang'e-4, then China will follow it with a robotic machine for 15 years. It is possible that a radio telescope will be added to the mission, which will not be subject to interference from terrestrial signals.

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