Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200811/20081102/article_379163.htm
Tenders for lunar rover start soon
Created: 2008-11-2
CHINA is soon expected to open the tendering process for the country's first moon rover, a member of the UK-China space engineering exchange program said in Beijing yesterday.
Ju Hehua, associate professor at the Beijing University of Technology, said tenders would be arranged by December before the National Space Agency (NSA) works out an overall development plan for the proposed lunar rover.
The NSA plans to send a robot moon vehicle to carry out a rover mission by 2012 in the second phase of its Chang'e moon exploration project.
At least 13 research institutes are interested in bidding for the contract, which is estimated to exceed 1 billion yuan (US$147 million).
Professor Ju, sponsored by the United Kingdom's Royal Academy of Engineering, is cooperating with researchers from the Surrey Space Center to develop a prototype rover.
Ju's team has already completed research into on-board guidance, navigation and control systems, which are vital to such a sophisticated automatic vehicle.
He predicted that the contract might not go to just one source. "It'll be a concerted work by various participants," Ju said, citing that some bidders have strong leads over others on some particular fields.
Ju said they could keep the cost of a current lunar rover under 3 million yuan and the more advanced next-generation robot would need as much as 30 million yuan.
One challenge is to develop a vehicle that is able to move on the rough surface of the moon, the gravity of which is one sixth of that on earth.
One other major task for a successful rover is to make sure it could cope with the sharp temperature difference, as much as 300 Celsius degrees, on the moon due to its thin atmosphere, the engineer said.
"We are also considering building super powerful batteries to help the rover survive during long nights on the moon," Ju said.
The UK-China exchange program works for China's moon exploration missions and paves the way for the UK's own space shots, such as the Moonraker lander mission.
Ju Hehua, associate professor at the Beijing University of Technology, said tenders would be arranged by December before the National Space Agency (NSA) works out an overall development plan for the proposed lunar rover.
The NSA plans to send a robot moon vehicle to carry out a rover mission by 2012 in the second phase of its Chang'e moon exploration project.
At least 13 research institutes are interested in bidding for the contract, which is estimated to exceed 1 billion yuan (US$147 million).
Professor Ju, sponsored by the United Kingdom's Royal Academy of Engineering, is cooperating with researchers from the Surrey Space Center to develop a prototype rover.
Ju's team has already completed research into on-board guidance, navigation and control systems, which are vital to such a sophisticated automatic vehicle.
He predicted that the contract might not go to just one source. "It'll be a concerted work by various participants," Ju said, citing that some bidders have strong leads over others on some particular fields.
Ju said they could keep the cost of a current lunar rover under 3 million yuan and the more advanced next-generation robot would need as much as 30 million yuan.
One challenge is to develop a vehicle that is able to move on the rough surface of the moon, the gravity of which is one sixth of that on earth.
One other major task for a successful rover is to make sure it could cope with the sharp temperature difference, as much as 300 Celsius degrees, on the moon due to its thin atmosphere, the engineer said.
"We are also considering building super powerful batteries to help the rover survive during long nights on the moon," Ju said.
The UK-China exchange program works for China's moon exploration missions and paves the way for the UK's own space shots, such as the Moonraker lander mission.
Xinhua
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