It was night in China when the Chang’e-5 T1 started successfully. A Long March 3C/E rocket blasted off from the Xichang satellite launch center and successfully sent an experimental spacecraft on a trip around the Moon. The mission is expected to last just over eight days to test some technologies needed in 2017, when China will send a robotic spacecraft to the Moon to collect samples to be returned to Earth.

This test mission is unofficially called Chang’e 5 T1 because it’s the first test to reach the 2017 mission Chang’e 5. It’s part of the ambitious Chinese space program which includes missions with astronauts, or taikonauts to use the Chinese term, and building their own space station, but also other automated missions to the Moon.

Currently, the Chang’e 3 mission is ongoing, with a space probe landed on the Moon on December 14, 2013 together with the rover Yutu. The latter had problems that limited its use but from the few information revealed by the Chinese it seems to keep on operating.

In the Chang’e 5 T1 mission, the experimental spacecraft is en route to make a flight around the Moon before returning to Earth and test the return technologies. Guidance systems, navigation and control, together with the heat shield have been developed to allow for future spacecraft to go to the Moon, collect samples and bring them back to Earth.

The Chinese are providing limited information about their plans for the next phases of their program but the Chang’e 4 mission should include a new lander / rover pair with various modifications. The aim is to carry out further studies of the Moon, including those that impossible in the Chang’e 3 mission because of the rover Yutu’s problems, but also test other technologies for the Chang’e 5. The Chang’e 4 mission should take place in 2015 or 2016.

The Chang’e 5 T1 mission includes a collaboration with the German company OHB System. The spacecraft carries a cargo called 4M (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission) mission after the company’s founder Manfred Fuchs, who died recently. These are two scientific instruments: one is a radio beacon which aims to test a new way to locate the spacecraft and the other is a dosimeter to measure continuously the radiation levels in the course of the trip.

If this test mission is successful, it will be another step forward for the Chinese space program. Within a few years, China could have a permanent presence on the Moon, even if it consists of automatic probes. It will still be a first phase, which is expected to be followed in the next decade by new lunar missions with astronauts.

[ad name=”AmazonScience”]