Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
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China’s Chang’e-7 mission, set for 2026, aims to explore the moon’s far side with an innovative flying robot.
The mission will search for frozen water in permanently shadowed craters, a critical resource for future lunar colonies.
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Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar program, believes these deep caves could hold ice essential for sustaining astronauts.
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Unlike traditional rovers, the flying robot will leap between sunlit and shadowed areas to analyze ice distribution.
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With crater temperatures plunging to -250°F, the robot must withstand some of the coldest conditions in the solar system.
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Deputy chief designer Tang Yuhua highlighted the difficulty of operating in these conditions, calling it a major engineering challenge.
If ice is abundant, it could be converted into water, oxygen, and hydrogen fuel, revolutionizing lunar exploration.
While NASA and India’s Chandrayaan missions have detected lunar water, Chang’e-7 will offer the most detailed analysis yet.
China envisions its findings leading to lunar bases, laying the groundwork for a permanent human presence on the moon.