CE-3: the first soft-landing on the Moon since Apollo era

 China’s spacecraft will realize the soft landing on the Moon in the next month. In order to command the driving path of thelunar rover, our country has established a deep space surveying and control net work.  We built a new ground station equippeda large antenna with 66 meters in diameter in Jiamusi, northeast China, aground station equipped a large antenna with 35 meters in diameter in Kashgar, Xinjiang, northwest China. We built an observatory equipped a large antenna with 65 meters in diameter, to serve for the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

· By building these ground stations , the current ability of  China’s Measurement, Control and Communication Technologies for space exploration is almost the same level with the world. We not only have the capability of measurement for lunar mission, but also lay the foundation for future deep space exploration, such as future Mars mission.

·Reporter : I was a report of "Wen Wei Po" in Hong Kong. Chang’E-3 will allow our country to become the third country to realize lunar soft landing, follow the United States and the former Soviet Union. Recently, India  has launched its Mars probe. Someone commented that India and China seem to be engaged inspace race. What is your opinion for this problem?

·Answer: About lunar exploration, the United States had already realized manned landing on the Moon. The former Soviet Union had realized robotic sampling and returning to the Earth. The goal of CE-3 is to realize soft landing on the Moon.

·India has lunched its Mars probe in October 5.  On behalf of the colleagues in China, I congratulate India’s successful lauch.

·India probe need to be accelerated in Earth orbit , and finally go into orbit around Mars. According to current statue, the probe will arrive at Mars in September, 2014. The process of realizing to orbit around the Mars is difficult. If India can successfully realize to orbit the Mars, it is indeed a great achievement, both for India or for international cooperation. As Chinese colleague, we wish they can success.

·In fact, we have no desire to race with any country. China have its own space program. We are realizing our own plans step by step. Our goal is to use the space peacefully. It is also the consensus of the world. The human beings need to make use of space resources to support the sustainable development.

·In the last month, the conference of International Astronautical Federation was opened in Beijing. It is a great event in theaerospace industry. The development of China’s space industry has been recognized by the community in the world.

·In this conference, the president of China National Space Administration, Xinrui Ma, stated clearly that China's space programme is opened for the world. International cooperation is encouragedand  welcomed. China will built our own space station in 2020. Our space station is opened for the world. We welcome the other countries to use the space station. Similarly, our lunar explorationprogram is also open to all. We have sincere willingness for international cooperation. Welcome to join China’s lunar program and work together for future lunar exploration.

Note: this news is translated from the internet source: http://202.106.152.92:8080/asop/login.asop