A flying spacecraft will peer into shadowed craters to look for ice.
, will carry Lunar Flashlight, a suitcase-sized satellite, among its many payloads. The spacecraft will shine infrared lasers into permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles while orbiting the moon to improve scientists' understanding of the quantities and accessibility of water ice.
However, setting down at the south pole of the moon will bring challenges for China and its Chang'e 7 mission, including identifying landing sites and making an accurate landing. Chang'e 7 requires a"high precision of landing, since there are not many flatlands at the south pole," Wu told CCTV."After our preliminary analysis, probably only one-tenth of the area can be used as the landing point. Therefore, the landing could be quite difficult.
The mission is far from being a one-off, with repeated visits and a possible permanent base among China's plans, which build on a series of lunar missions over the past 15 years. The country approved a three-stage lunar program in the early 2000s: first the Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 orbiters; then landers and rovers with Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4, with the latter making the
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