China Rolls Out Chang'e-7 for a Weekend Launch to Hunt for Water Ice at the Moon's South Pole

China is preparing to launch Chang'e-7, a complex multi-spacecraft mission to study the Moon's south pole and search for water ice. A Long March 5 rocket carrying the mission was rolled out at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island on August 19. Airspace closure notices point to a launch window opening around 8:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern time on August 23.

The mission targets the lunar south pole, where scientists want to know whether volatiles are trapped in permanently shadowed craters that act as cold traps. Volatiles are substances such as water that easily turn to vapour; they have been detected from orbit by remote sensing, but there have been no measurements or sampling directly on the surface. The Chang'e-7 stack consists of an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a propellant-powered hopper spacecraft. After launch, the spacecraft will enter an initial lunar orbit about five days later, and the orbiter will begin imaging possible landing sites.

The lander will attempt a precise touchdown with a target zone under 100 metres across, near a feature called the Peak Near Shackleton, next to the large Shackleton crater. Engineers favour elevated, flat ground that gets long periods of sunlight while sitting close to permanently shadowed regions that may hold ice. The hopper is designed to fly into a shadowed crater and drill there. Together with the follow-on Chang'e-8 mission planned for around 2029, Chang'e-7 is meant to lay the technical groundwork for China's planned International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).