According to the statement made by the China National Space Administration, the lunar exploration vehicle was brought to the Winchang Space Center on Hainan Island for pre-launch tests.
The Chang’i 7 mission aims to make significant breakthroughs in key technologies such as high-precision soft landing on the lunar surface, leg movements, bounce and the examination of craters under permanent shadow.
Within the scope of the mission, environmental and resource investigations will be carried out at the south pole of the Moon.
China aims to set foot on the Moon by organizing a manned expedition by 2030. CMSA had announced its three-phase plan to establish a fully functional research base on the Moon by 2050.
Within the scope of the project called “International Lunar Research Base” (ILRS), 3 exploration missions are planned in the first phase until 2028 to establish the basic state of the station.
In this context, the “Chang’i 6” mission was carried out in 2024 to collect rock and soil samples from the dark side of the Moon. Following the “Chang’i 7” mission, which will explore the south pole of the Moon, the “Chang’i 8” mission is being considered in 2027 to verify the natural resource capacity and availability and to conduct tests for the construction of a space base on the Moon’s surface.
In the second phase, it is aimed to conduct 5 manned expeditions in the 2030-2040 period for the construction of a research base on the Moon.
In the third phase, covering the period 2040-2050, it is aimed to carry out further infrastructure work to transform ILRS into an application-oriented base.
The station is aimed to become a multifunctional research base that will support space missions to Mars, Venus and beyond in 2050.
