Mission objectives and payloads for the first lunar exploration of China

Abstract

China plans to implement its first lunar exploration by 2007. The mission objectives are: obtaining the lunar surface three-dimensional stereo image; analyzing the distribution of the useful elements and estimating their abundance, surveying the thickness of lunar soil and evaluating resource of He-3, exploring the environment between the Moon and Earth. To achieve the above mission goals, five kinds of scientific instruments are chosen as the payloads of the lunar satellite. These include stereo camera and Sagnac-based interferometer spectrometer imager, laser altimeter, microwave radiometer, gamma and X-ray spectrometer system and space environment monitor system. In order to collect, process, store and transmit the scientific data of the payloads a special payload data management system (PDMS) is also included. In this paper, the goals of Chinese first lunar exploration and the payloads of the lunar satellite are described in detail.