News / Brèves Space / Espace Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente The Chang’e-5T Service Module Is Off to Deep Space; Will Return to the Moon 6 November 2014 China’s phase-three planning for robotic lunar exploration is focused on returning to Earth samples from the moon. LPAC —After releasing the Return Module that landed back on Earth Nov. 1, the Service Module on the Chang’e-5T mission, which does not come back, has been reassigned a mission further in space. It is headed to the Earth-Moon L-2 libration point, where, 37,000 miles past the Moon, there is a gravitational balance between the Earth and Moon. A spacecraft can "park" there, virtually motionless. The Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter was similarly re-purposed, sent to the L-2 point, and then on to a fly-by of near-Earth asteroid, Toutatis. But space scientist Emily Lakdawalla reports today that, according to China Military Online, the Chang’e-5T Service Module will not stay at the L-2 point, or travel further, but will return to lunar orbit. It then could provide communications support for China’s future missions to the Moon. Lakdawalla explains that with an orbiter in place, a future Chinese lunar lander would not be limited to sites that are in line-of-sight with the Earth, but could even be placed on the lunar far-side, which is poorly explored, never seen from Earth. There is speculation that there will be a Chang’e-4 mission, which would re-do, likely with significant up-grades, a lunar lander and rover mission, to augment what was learned on the Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu mission, last December. Marsha Freeman