Top Chinese scientist claims India’s Chandrayaan-3 isn’t really on moon’s south pole and that China’s Chang’e-6 lander will be there first in 2024
China will send an unmanned spacecraft to the south pole of the moon next year with the lunar aim of bringing two kilograms of rock samples back to Earth.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on September 29 it will send Chang’e-6 to the far side of the moon, which has not yet been explored by scientists. It said it will launch a satellite called Queqiao 2, or Magpie Bridge 2, to relay communications to and from the moon in early 2024.
Some commentators said that India, despite some earlier reports, cannot credibly claim to have reached the lunar south pole and that China has a chance to be a pioneer in that regard.
Last year, the CNSA said Chang’e-6’s launch would be in 2025. Early this year, it changed the timeframe to around 2024 and 2025, and now the new target is for next year.
The CNSA’s latest announcement coincided with the mid-autumn festival, which originated in Chinese mythology from Chang’e, the goddess of the moon.
It also came after Ouyang Liyuan, a top Chinese scientist, claimed Wednesday that India’s Chandrayaan-3, which landed on the moon on August 23, is actually nowhere near the lunar south pole.
“There are two things that need to be clarified about India’s moon lander. First, the description about its landing location is inaccurate. Second, people are over-optimistic about the existence of ‘water ice’ at the south pole,” Ouyang told the China Science Daily in an interview.
He said Chandrayaan-3 is at least 619 kilometers away from the moon’s south polar region, so it’s wrong to say that India has reached the south pole or is even close to it.
Source : Asiatimes