CMSA shares first look at Lanyue and Mengzhou!
New footage from CMSA has shown off real hardware for China's crewed lunar landing.
The China Manned Space Agency is currently attending the Sixth Manned Spaceflight Academic Conference, in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. As part of the conference, the agency has also released a promotional video, in which the first looks at hardware for the Lanyue (揽月) lunar lander and Mengzhou (梦舟) crew capsule were shared!
Video via China Manned Space Agency on Weibo.
Our first look at Lanyue is of a prototype vehicle in a cleanroom for separation testing. This prototype vehicle has various attitude control thrusters, main engines, and external hardware installed, it remains to be seen if this is flight-like hardware or just ground-testing analogs. What wasn’t shared are images of the braking module of Lanyue, which will be used to bring the spacecraft into lunar orbit, it is also much simpler being primarily propellant tanks and an engine.
The first glimpse at the new Mengzhou capsule design was also in a cleanroom, last seen properly during its flight atop the Long March 5B back in May 2020. In the footage, Mengzhou is missing a fair amount of hardware with teams installing it into various open panels. Focus was kept on the capsule with no footage of the service module shared.
Also in the promotional video was a plan for a three-day lunar surface expedition using a lunar rover, this three-day expedition will likely be the standard surface mission duration after initial landings. Like the lunar rovers of the Apollo program, China’s rovers will be folded up during transit to the surface, with unfolding happening while suspended by a small crane. Testing of surface rovers are well underway.
Despite the short looks at hardware, and limited information shared, the first look at real hardware for China’s lunar landing is a good sign of progress happening at China Manned Space Agency, China Academy of Space Technology, and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation facilities. This is backed up by a report from Xinhua with part of it as follows:
“The mission will encompass a range of tasks, including landing, roving, sampling, research and returning to Earth.”
”China aims to achieve manned lunar landing by 2030. By utilizing pre-crewed flight tests and manned lunar missions, China plans to conduct large-scale space science experiments targeting three key areas, including lunar science, lunar-based science, and resource exploration and utilization.”
”Production and ground tests of prototypes of the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the manned spacecraft Mengzhou, the lunar lander Lanyue, the spacesuit to be worn by astronauts, and the lunar rover are underway as planned, according to the CMSA.”
”Ground facilities and equipment for the production and tests have been completed and are operational, and the construction of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site is proceeding as planned.”
Testing of components for the Long March 10 launch vehicles is well underway, with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology sharing the latest fairing separation test. This separation test was with a five-meter tall and five-meter diameter fairing. The purpose of the testing was stated as assessing fairing design, connection structure, separation plan, and maximum available envelope.
The faring tested is far too short for use with conventional payloads or Lanyue and is likely for protecting the service module of Mengzhou during launch. This is likely due to the inclusion of a large cylindrical structure inside the fairing halves along with what is possibly a payload adapter equivalent. Plans for Mengzhou during launch have an abort tower atop the capsule while a fairing shields the solar panels and other components.