CRI听力: China's Chang'e-1 Lunar Probe Completed Key Tasks

A chief scientist of China's lunar exploration project says China's first lunar probe Chang'e-1 has completed four key tasks and has made important discoveries. He's confident that its sister satellite chang'e-2 will be launched by 2011 as scheduled.

Wang Lei has more.

Reporter:

Countries all over the world are working to explore the final frontier so as to advance their technology and discover new energy sources.(www.hXen.com)

In October, 2007, China launched its first lunar probe Chang'e-1 which is named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon in legend.

Chang'e-1 has fulfilled four scientific objectives after around 500 days of flight.

The four key tasks include a survey of the moon's surface, analysis of lunar surface elements, an investigation of the lunar regolith, as well as an exploration of the circumstances between the earth and the moon.

Ouyang Ziyuan is chief scientist of China's lunar exploration project. In an interview with China Central Television, he says Chinese scientists have created the country's first full map of the moon's surface with the image data captured by the satellite-borne camera on Chang'e-1.

"It could be the best moon map in the world. Similar maps published before didn't cover the whole picture of the moon's surface. But this map shows complete coverage of the moon surface."

Ouyang said the map released so far only reflects a plan view of the moon's surface. China will reveal a three-dimensional map of the lunar surface at the end of this year.

He says scientists have also gained knowledge of the distribution of eight chemical elements on the moon's surface such as potassium, thorium and uranium. The findings will help to discover potentially useful resources on the moon.

Moreover, the lunar scientist says data gathered by the microwave detector on the probe helps to identify the amount of Helilum-3 on the moon.

"We want to calculate how much Helium-3 exists in the moon's soil. Helium-3 is rare in the earth. It may become a kind of important fuel source in the future."

In the mean time, Ouyang says another satellite, Chang'e-2 is scheduled to launch by 2011. The CCD camera it will carry is of much higher resolution compared to Chang'e-1.

"Then our mission will turn to conducting a more detailed survey on the landing area of Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4 so as to prepare well for future lunar exploration."

The launch of Chang'e-1 was the first step of China's three-stage moon mission.

A moon landing and the launch of a moon rover around 2012 is planned for the second stage.

In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research around the year 2017.

Wang Lei, CRI News.