What we do know is that accessing that water ice will be a real challenge: it is found at the bottom of deep, hard-to-traverse craters where the Sun never shines<\/a>, remaining untouched for billions of years at temperatures well below \u2013200\u00b0C<\/a>. These are among the most valuable places on the Moon, but the hardest to reach and explore.<\/p>\n Lunar exploration has come a long way since the Soviet Union\u2019s Luna-1 probe<\/a> reached the Moon\u2019s vicinity in January 1959. The Apollo missions and their successors showed the challenge is no longer simply to reach the Moon. It is to explore places human and conventional rovers cannot easily go, and ultimately determine whether the Moon itself can provide some of the resources that future explorers will need.<\/p>\n China has spent two decades building an increasingly ambitious lunar exploration programme<\/a>, named after Chang’e<\/a>, the ancient Chinese goddess of the Moon. The Chang’e-7 mission is expected to set course for our celestial neighbour later this month<\/a>, although a recent failure<\/a> involving a different Chinese rocket has introduced some uncertainty<\/a> over the launch date. Here\u2019s what makes this latest mission so interesting.<\/p>\n What is Chang’e-7 set to achieve?<\/p>\n The mission will test several novel approaches<\/a> to lunar exploration. It will consist of an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a hopper. <\/p>\n In addition, the Queqiao-2<\/a> lunar relay satellite is already in place. Launched separately in March 2024, it subsequently supported the Chang’e-6<\/a> mission and will facilitate communication between Earth and the lunar surface during the Chang’e-7 mission. <\/p>\n We don\u2019t know precisely where the mission will land, but a site on or near an illuminated ridge close to the Shackleton crater in the Lunar South Pole\u2019s Aitken region is a prime candidate.<\/p>\n The hopper will be the mission\u2019s real star. Unlike a wheeled rover, it\u2019s designed to leap over broken terrain<\/a> and descend into craters where sunlight never reaches, places conventional vehicles may simply be unable to enter.<\/p>\n Adding it to the mission makes sense, given the steep crater walls, broken terrain, permanent shadow and the need for autonomous navigation and communications.<\/p>\n Chinese scientists won\u2019t be looking for signs of water; we already have compelling evidence for lunar polar water<\/a>. The question at the mission\u2019s core is where exactly that water is located, in what form and concentration, and whether it could realistically be accessed.<\/p>\n This marks a transition from simply exploring the Moon to determining whether its resources can actually be used.<\/p>\n Mosaic of the Moon\u2019s south polar region, width approximately 600 km. The south pole is at the centre of the intersecting lines. How NASA is taking a different tack<\/p>\n Other nations are similarly interested in addressing that same question. The United States is pursuing the same longer-term objective of making sustained lunar operations<\/a> possible. Although NASA will be confronted by the same physical problems, the American space agency has opted for a different solution. <\/p>\n Chang’e-7 is a coordinated state mission whose elements have been designed around a single, specific objective and which can use the already operational Queqiao-2 infrastructure.<\/p>\n NASA, by contrast, is deliberately trying something different: building a lunar marketplace through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services<\/a> (CLPS) programme. The agency buys lunar delivery, mobility and technology services from companies that own and operate their own spacecraft. <\/p>\n NASA currently has<\/a> 17 contracted deliveries carrying more than 60 instruments.<\/p>\n And the American effort has already yielded useful experience: Intuitive Machines\u2019 IM-2 mission, Athena<\/a>, attempted strikingly similar undertakings to Chang’e-7. It carried a drill and mass spectrometer looking for volatiles, a small hopping vehicle<\/a> intended to explore difficult terrain and an experimental mobile communications network. However, the lander fell over at the landing site and was powered down just one day after arriving.<\/p>\n In essence, the destination dictates the problems; different space programmes are experimenting with different ways to resolve them.<\/p>\n Learning how to live on the Moon<\/p>\n Finding lunar resources is only the first step. Chang’e-7 will attempt to determine where useful lunar resources are found near the Moon\u2019s South Pole and characterise their nature. <\/p>\n Chang’e-8<\/a>, slated for potential launch in 2028, will move towards demonstrating how they might actually be used. <\/p>\n Crewed exploration will likely follow, culminating in the construction of the International Lunar Research Station<\/a>, jointly led by the China National Space Administration and Russia\u2019s Roscosmos space agency.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/file-20260818-50-nx8396.jpg\")
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\n NASA\/GSFC\/Arizona State University<\/a><\/p>\n