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China planning unmanned moon landing by 2010

"We think that China's space program can solve many economic and social problems that we are now facing."

Sun Laiyan, head of the China National Space Administration

China has finished assembling its first lunar satellite probe and is working to design pollution-free rockets, an official said yesterday.

"Smooth progress has been made in research and development of Chang'e I [the probe], and we have completed assembly of the satellite," Sun Laiyan (孫來燕), head of the China National Space Administration, said at a news conference.

Chang'e I is expected to be launched next year "to test the technical feasibility and reliability of our technology," Sun said.

He was speaking at the release of a government report on China's space activities this year, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the country's aerospace industry.

The Chang'e I project is part of an effort to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010.

Chang'e I, named after a mythical lunar-dwelling Chinese fairy, will orbit the moon at an altitude of 200km and "will explore the environment and atmosphere between the Earth and the moon," Sun said.

State media say the satellite will take three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and analyze its materials.

The report said one of China's key tasks in the next five years is to develop "nontoxic, pollution-free, high-performance, low-cost and powerful thrust carrier rockets."

The next Chinese manned space flight is due next year. Sun said the project was "going smoothly," but did not give details.

China may one day offer trips into space for tourists, Sun said.

He also defended the cost of the space programme, saying Beijing spent far less than the US, it benefited ordinary people and was anyway a matter of national pride.

In 2003, China became only the third country -- after the US and the former Soviet Union -- to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket. In October last year, it sent two men into orbit and plans a space walk by 2008.

"The success of our manned space missions, becoming only the third country in the world to put a man into space on our own, is a source of pride for the Chinese nation," Sun said.

Sending up tourists, like Iranian-American telecom billionaire Anousheh Ansari who paid US$20 million for a stay on the International Space Station, is an option China could go for, Sun said.

"Once our technology is more mature, more reliable, there is this possibility. Not only male tourists, but female too," he said.

Sun defended the billions of dollars China -- a developing country where millions still struggle to clothe and feed themselves -- earmarks for space exploration.

China will next year spend only a tenth of the US$17 billion NASA has budgeted for the same timeframe, he said.

The first stage of China's lunar exploration plan will cost just slightly more than 1 billion yuan (US$126.4 million).

Money well spent, Sun said.

"We think that China's space program can solve many economic and social problems that we are now facing," he said.

Chinese satellites help with weather forecasting and sending seeds into space has helped breed better, faster maturing crops, Sun said.

Chinese farmers would also be helped by beaming educational radio and television programs into their houses, he added.
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