{"id":13937,"date":"2012-08-27T05:08:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T05:08:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-08-26T18:08:48","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T18:08:48","slug":"China-may-be-the-next-to-land-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=13937","title":{"rendered":"China may be the next to land on the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Armstrong’s 1969 lunar landing marked a pinnacle of US technological achievement, defining what many saw as the American century, but the next person to set foot on the moon will likely be Chinese.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the United States has scaled back its manned space programme to cut costs — a move strongly criticized by Armstrong, who died on Saturday — Asian nations have aggressively expanded into space exploration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

China, Japan and India all have their own space programs.<\/strong> New Delhi, which envisages its first manned mission in 2016, recently unveiled ambitious plans to launch a space probe that would orbit Mars.<\/p>\n

Japan participates in the International Space Station program and launched its first lunar probe in 2007.<\/strong> It is planning a follow-up that it hopes will find “organic substances or minerals containing water” on an asteroid.<\/p>\n

But experts say that China, which as recently as the 1980s was focused solely on developing satellites, is the closest to landing an astronaut on the moon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beijing launched its manned space program in 1999 and has developed rapidly since, sending its first astronaut into space in 2003 and completing a space walk in 2008.<\/p>\n

This year, it conducted its first manned space docking — the latest step towards setting up a space station — during a mission that included its first woman in space.<\/p>\n

In its last White Paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon<\/strong> — a feat so far only achieved by the United States, most recently in 1972 — although it did not give a time frame.<\/p>\n

It will attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time in the second half of 2013 and transmit back a survey of the lunar surface.<\/strong><\/p>\n

China’s space program remains far behind that of the United States<\/strong> — as evidenced by the fact that the recent manual space docking trumpeted by Beijing was mastered by the United States in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

US President Barack Obama said in 2010 he would drop the costly Constellation space program, killing off future moon exploration.<\/p>\n

But the United States is developing a new rocket, and this month landed a rover the size of a car on Mars for a two-year mission to explore the Red Planet for signs it could support life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beijing has spent about 39 billion yuan (US$6.1 billion) on its manned space program since it began 20 years ago<\/strong>, state media have said.<\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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