Ouyang Ziyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of China's Lunar Exploration Project (CLEP), announced in an academic report meeting held in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, that China is planning to give an accurate and complete "portrait" of the moon in 3D images.
The first scientific objective of "Change 1" lunar orbiter is set to portray the moon through various means to obtain spherical and cubic images. Xinhua reported on June 22nd that although some countries have already begun this work, there are still blanks in 3D video maps, especially in the moon's Antarctic and Arctic regions.
"The mapping this time will not only fully cover the lunar surface, but also include sophisticated mapping of its Antarctic and Arctic regions. Based on this, the studies on the Moon's landscape, geological formation, impact craters classification, and evolution will be carried out. " Ouyang Ziyuan said.
He also revealed that China would be the first to probe soil thickness of the Moon through exploring the characteristics of surface microwave, thus obtaining precise information of reserves and distributing of Helium-3, an important energy resource that can be used to serve sustainable development of the Earth. At the same time, some other 14 useful resources such as iron, titanium, and rare earth on the Moon will be probed.
Ouyang Ziyuan introduced that many elements on the moon may be useful to the Earth in the future. But first we have to be informed which of them are useful and about their reserves and distribution. The United States previously done this, but she only detected five resources: iron, titanium, uranium, thorium, and potassium. We hope and also are able to detect 14 types of elements.
(People's Daily June 27, 2006)
