From landing system development to trajectory design and landing site selection to abort scenarios.
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The Chinese-language research journal “Chinese Space Science and Technology” has published a special issue on the development of various elements of China’s crewed Moon missions with 14 ‘open access’ papers. This includes details of the ~26,000-kilogram crewed lunar landing system called ‘Lanyue’, which means ‘embracing the Moon’ in Chinese. Lanyue comprises a crewed lander and an attached heavy propulsion module. It’s the latter which will initiate lunar surface descent from orbit and shave off the bulk of the combined craft’s orbital velocity. When the crew reaches a few kilometers above the Moon’s surface, the propulsion module will jettison from the lander, thereby lightening the load for the final landing and touchdown of the astronauts — or more accurately, taikonauts.
The special issue of papers also has one which details various redundancy measures China is planning for to ensure the safety of taikonauts throughout various phases of Moon missions should any key…