Moon Monday #237: China completes large lander test in latest milestone to put humans on the Moon

On August 6, China successfully conducted a terrestrially simulated lunar landing and takeoff test using a full-scale mockup of its upcoming ~26,000-kilogram crewed Moon lander named Lanyue—which roughly means ‘embracing the Moon’ in Chinese. For the control systems test, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) used the same exogravity simulation system in Huailai County outside Beijing as for previous tests part of past robotic Moon and Mars landing missions. The system involves giant tethered towers to simulate lunar gravity and an artificially cratered, rugged terrain on the ground to mimc the Moon’s surface. The test seemed to show apt coordination between the lander’s main engines and fine-control thrusters as orchestrated by Lanyue’s guidance, navigation, and control system by engaging all sensors and imagers.

As Ling Xin has noted, there are two more interesting aspects to the test:

Footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed a lunar rover mounted on the lander’s side, along with a ladder attached to one leg for astronauts to climb down to the surface. [...] Lanyue consists of the lander itself and a propulsion module, which carries most of the fuel and engines for the initial slowdown. A few kilometers above the surface, the propulsion module will separate from the lander and lighten the load for final landing. The propulsion module was not tested on Wednesday.

CMSA says the development “represents a breakthrough in research and development in terms of China’s manned lunar exploration program.” That’s true, especially since the Chinese have been consistently hitting milestones in the lead up to its first crewed Moon landing aimed to be accomplished by 2030. Below is a review of all such recent milestones.

Recent Sino milestones towards crewed Moon missions

• Two months ago, CMSA successfully tested the launchpad escape system of China’s next-generation Mengzhou spacecraft. A variant called ‘Mengzhou Y’ will carry astronauts for Moon missions to lunar orbit.

• With Chang’e 5, China demonstrated the world’s first remote docking and undocking of spacecraft in lunar orbit in 2020. It repeated the feat with Chang’e 6 last year, bringing lunar samples from the Moon’s farside and demonstrating flexibility in the core architecture. China will utilize the technology for crewed Moon landings, wherein a Mengzhou Y spacecraft will dock with the Lanyue lunar lander in lunar orbit. Two of three/four astronauts then transfer into the lander. After the two spacecraft separate, the Lanyue lander will touchdown on the Moon for the surface mission. It will then return to lunar orbit to re-dock with Mengzhou Y, which will subsequently bring the crew back home.
• Late last year, China created a test stand in the northwestern Shaanxi province, which can simulate the kind of high-altitude and vacuum conditions that the Lanyue lander will experience during its lunar descent and touchdown. The stand allows the lander’s main engine to be tested for its full burn duration of up to 20 minutes. Apparently the test system took only eight months to complete, according to Li Guanghui of CAST who was involved in the project.
• Andrew Jones reported in November 2024 that CALT successfully conducted a 5-meter-fairing separation test of China’s upcoming heavy-lift, crew-capable Long March 10 rocket. The Long March 10 will have a three-booster variant with a larger fairing for crewed Moon missions, whose separation system should be tested soon too as per CASC. It’s two of these Long March 10s that will launch Mengzhou Y and Lanyue towards the Moon respectively for each of China’s crewed Moon missions.
• Jack Congram has reported that for launches of Long March 10 from the southern Hainan island, China is constructing a third launchpad at Wenchang called Launch Complex 301. The core launch support tower build has been completed. The development of associated infrastructure is now in full swing, including the vehicle assembly building, servicing platforms, and transport systems. Xinhua has reported CMSA saying that the development and construction of ground systems—including the launch site, the measurement and control communication system, and the landing site—are “advancing in order”.

• With the debut launch of the semi-cryogenic Long March 12 rocket last November, China successfully flew the YF-100K engine, the same kind that will power the first stage(s) of the Long March 10. And, as Ling Xin reported in July 2024, China successfully test fired the YF-75E high energy hydrolox engine as well, three of which will power the third stage of Long March 10.
• The upcoming Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 missions, targeted for launch next year and 2028 respectively, will demonstrate precision landings as well as the ability to explore the Moon’s south pole for water ice and other resources. Both of these capabilities will be valuable for China’s plan to create the crew-plus-robotic ILRS Moonbase, which will follow the string of initial crewed lunar missions of the 2030s.
• Over the last couple of years, China has demonstrated world-leading lunar navigation and communications technologies in complex Earth-Moon orbital spaces. These abilities will substantially improve both the lunar surface coverage time and area as well as ground station availability for China’s future crewed Moon missions, and give it an edge over the US in sustaining the program.

• Chinese taikonauts (astronauts) have begun initial training for lunar missions since late last year across lunar transit and surface operations. Development has also progressed on the space suit and rover to be used by astronauts, with various prototypes built and tested.
• In 2023, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) solicited science payload proposals for the mission’s lander. Similar to the instruments NASA will deploy on Artemis III, CMSA wants these payloads to focus on lunar geology, physics, life sciences, and solar and astronomical observations. Unlike Artemis III though, CMSA is open to in-situ resource utilization demos being proposed too! The final selection of the instruments to fly is expected to be announced soon.
• In February, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced a call for Chinese organizations to bid for developing a lunar mapping satellite in support of crewed Moon missions. The satellite’s mandate is to obtain high-precision mineral, topographic, and geomorphic data of the Moon’s low-latitude regions to aid planning of surface missions. Xinhua reported CMSA stating in April that the project has completed its approval and competitive selection process.

So that was a review of all recent advances from China as it prepares to send humans to the Moon. China sure is giving it all the might it can muster, and it will be great to watch a second nation from Earth land humans on Luna.

Many thanks to Open Lunar Foundation and Ajay Kothari for sponsoring this week’s Moon Monday! If you too appreciate my efforts to bring you this curated community resource on global lunar exploration for free, and without ads, kindly support my independent writing:

Artemis updates

• On July 31, the crew of Artemis II entered the fuel-loaded, original Orion capsule—which is targeted to take them around the Moon and back next year—to practice activities and operations they’d have to perform before launch and during the transit to Luna. This excercise had high fidelity since the crew not only used the original capsule but also put on their spacesuits and tested Orion’s interfaces while the capsule operated on full power with its communications and life control systems turned on. This latest update follows last month’s milestone of NASA completing a series of eight tests of ground systems and associated launch infrastructure ahead of the eventual second SLS rocket launch for Artemis II. Marcia Smith has recently reported that NASA is trying to launch Artemis II in February 2026.
• After nearly six months of trying to establish communications with the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft post its February launch, NASA has declared an end to the rescue efforts and the mission. The agency-funded Trailblazer was supposed to provide scientists with unprecedented, high-resolution global orbital maps of the amount, distribution, and state of water across our Moon. However, control over the spacecraft was lost shorty after launch, with subsequent revival efforts unsuccessful. Unfortunately, Trailblazer is the latest example of the US failing to explore lunar water as the principal goal of Artemis. NASA says the same infrared spectrometer design from Trailblazer will fly on an unspecified mission end of decade to provide regional contextual observations for the instruments to be aboard the upcoming versatile Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), which will be used across Artemis missions for years starting end of decade at best. This means the expected scientific output from Trailblazer will now have to wait at least five more years.

More Moon

• Orbital image processing enthusiast Chandra Tungathurthi has shared new imagery of the unsuccessful touchdown of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 CLPS lander Athena this past March. The images clearly show engine plume and surface interactions during the lander’s final descent phase as well as the first surface contact of Athena’s landing legs. To appreciate the difference in detail between NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, and with ISRO itself not sharing enough imagery to make their orbiter’s potential clear, I had to compare the images of Athena from the two and adjust the scale and rotation to roughly match:

• The University of Hong Kong is hiring for two doctoral positions to analyze Chang’e 5 & 6 lunar samples and characterize human & robotic lunar landing sites respectively.
• Apollo 8 & 13 astronaut Jim Lovell passed away at 97.