CHINA TO BUILD POWER STATION IN THE MOON

China on recently successfully carried out the world's first soft
landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, the next
stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a
Chinese astronaut on the moon.
The unmanned Chang'e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess
of the moon, touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor following a
12-minute landing process.
The probe carried a six-wheeled moon rover called "Yutu," or "Jade
Rabbit," the goddess' pet. After landing Saturday evening on a fairly
flat, Earth-facing part of the moon, the rover was slated to separate
from the Chang'e eight hours later and embark on a three-month
scientific exploration.
China's space program is an enormous source of pride for the country,
the third to carry out a lunar soft landing — which does not damage
the craft and the equipment it carries — after the United States and
the former Soviet Union. The last one was by the Soviet Union in 1976.
"It's still a significant technological challenge to land on another
world," said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane's Space Systems
and Industry. "Especially somewhere like the moon, which doesn't have
an atmosphere so you can't use parachutes or anything like that. You
have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure
you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you
don't end up in a crater on top of a large rock."
State-run China Central Television showed a computer-generated image
of the Chang'e 3 lander's path as it approached the surface of the
moon, saying that during the 12-minute landing period it needed to
have no contact with Earth. As it was just hundreds of meters (yards)
away, the lander's camera broadcast images of the moon's surface.
The Chang'e 3's solar panels, which are used to absorb sunlight to
generate power, opened soon after the landing. The Chang'e 3 will set
up antennae that will transmit pictures back to Earth.
The Chang'e mission blasted off from southwest China on Dec. 2 on a
Long March-3B carrier rocket.
China's military-backed space program has made methodical progress in
a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States
and Russia in technology and experience.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third
nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space
travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon.
China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut
to the moon after that.
"They are taking their time with getting to know about how to fly
humans into space, how to build space stations ... how to explore the
solar system, especially the moon and Mars," Bond said. "They are
making good strides, and I think over the next 10, 20 years they'll
certainly be rivaling Russia and America in this area and maybe
overtaking them in some areas."