Mankind first landed on the moon in 1969. We went back a few times, then lost interest within three short years, and haven’t been back since. NASA just flew a quartet of astronauts to the moon last week, and hopes to touch down on the lunar surface in 2028. But America’s space program is no longer the only game in town.
China has emerged as another major player in the second race to the Moon. After manned space flight 23 years ago, the world’s space program has been going from strength to strength. With the arrival of the moon on the cards, the country hopes to plant its boots, and perhaps raise the alarm, by 2030.
The Red Moon
Over the past two decades, China’s space program has accomplished many remarkable feats. It sent rovers to the far side of the moon, landed a rover on Mars, and built a habitable space station in Earth orbit. The next obvious achievement would be landing on the Moon, a feat humanity has not accomplished in over 50 years despite the constant advances in our technology since then.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said late last year that it was on track to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. An important timeline, just four years away.
Central to China’s effort is the Long March 10 rocket. Developed from the workhorse Long March 5, the super-heavy-lift launch vehicle will be able to deliver 70 tons of payload into low Earth orbit, or 27 tons for trans-lunar injection (TLI). These figures are comparable to NASA’s Space Launch System (95 tonnes LEO, 27 tonnes TLI), although somewhat in the shadow of the powerful Saturn V that launched the Apollo astronauts to the Moon (140 tonnes LEO, 43.5 tonnes TLI).
In the standard configuration, the Long March 10 includes two boosters, as well as first, second, and third stage rockets. Each booster, along with the first stage, features 7 YF-100K rocket engines that burn RP-1 and liquid oxygen, for a total of 21 engines that fire together at altitude. The second stage has just two YF-100M engines, also burning RP-1 and liquid oxygen, while the third stage has three YF-75E engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Test launch of the first stage of the Long March 10 rocket, without boosters.
So far, the Long March 10 has not been fully tested. Tests were launched in February to verify the performance of the first stage, the rocket successfully deployed in the South China Sea after reaching an altitude of 105 kilometers above the ground. The first full orbital flight of Long March 10 is planned for later this year.
Of course, the rocket is just one part of the lunar mission. I Mengzhou the spacecraft is an analog of the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM), responsible for placing a crew in orbit around the Moon, with a crew of up to six or seven depending on the configuration. It is designed to be served It’s okay lander, which will carry astronauts to the Moon itself.
It could also carry a lunar rover to give China’s taikonauts the ability to explore the wider surface of the Moon. Notably, It’s okay again Mengzhou are designed to be delivered in separate launches on Long March 10. They are intended to meet in low lunar orbit, where the crew takes off Mengzhou to It’s okay so that it reaches the moon, and then it is transferred back Mengzhou for the journey back to Earth. The landing will be similar to the Apollo program, with a crew of Mengzhou He descended under parachutes into the sea.
Same Things
The Chinese mission is not much different from any other lunar landing program. This is not particularly surprising. The basic physics of the problem hasn’t changed in 50 years, it’s just a matter of building cars to do the job and get there. Which is not to say it’s easy: there’s still a lot of work to be done to get the Long March 10, It’s okayagain Mengzhou they are all poised for a big journey to the top, and whether that can be completed in the next four years remains to be seen.
The timeline may be optimistic, but somehow, it still feels more realistic than NASA’s previous target of 2028. Time will tell if the flag for the next waves on the Moon is red and yellow, or red white and blue. Or, maybe even green, just in case one of the countries randomly changed their flag over the years. Anything could happen.
