Italy on the moon with China. And this that could be inferred by reading the Xinhua agency launch that on Sunday (reported by the Associated Press and Ansa) went around the world. It is about the words of Hu Hao , chief engineer of the Chang’e 6 program, the upcoming lunar mission in Beijing. He will leave “around 2024” and will have scientific instruments from “France, Sweden, Italy and Russia” on board. In a moment of redefinition of space alliances, this was enough to raise more than a few eyebrows, considering that the new race for the Moon is now in effect at the center of the new space confrontation between the United States and China, and that Italy has well adhered to the Artemis program promoted by Washington. THE RUSSIA-CHINA UNDERSTANDING
Among other things, the Americans have assigned a particularly geopolitical character to the Artemis program, inviting “allies and partners” to join and launching the appropriate Artemis Accords on the exploitation of extra-atmospheric resources. In response, Russia has established relations with Beijing, also recently announcing its intention to abandon the International Space Station (ISS) around 2025. In September 2019, Roscosmos and CNSA signed an agreement to collaborate in the field of ‘lunar exploration, through a reciprocal contribution for the Russian orbiting probe Luna-26 and for the Chinese mission Chang’e 7, which foresees the landing on the lunar south pole, the same one identified by the USA for Artemis. Agreement accompanied by the launch of a shared data center, to be built with hubs in both countries. Most recently, in early March,OPENING OR TRANELLO
On 23 April, on the sidelines of the 58th session of the technical-scientific subcommittee of Copuos (the UN committee for the peaceful use of space), Russia and China formally invited all the other countries to join the project “a all levels ”, from design to operations. In summary, on Friday, on the sidelines of a meeting at the United Nations, Russia and China open Ilrs to “everyone”. Two days later, on Sunday, the Chinese agency Xinhua celebrates the new announcement on Chang’e 6, highlighting the contributions to the program from France, Sweden, Italy and Russia, without however specifying anything else. THE BEIJING PROGRAM
The Beijing program is anything but improvised. In 2007 and 2010, Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 departed respectively, with two probes orbiting the satellite. In 2013, Chang’e-3 brought a lander and a rover to the surface which, despite some mobility problems, operated for 31 months. At the beginning of 2019 (shortly before the US announcement on Artemis) the Chang’e 4 probe surprised the world, becoming the first in history to land on the far side of the Moon. More recently, in December, the Chang’e 5 mission allowed China to become the third country in the world to bring samples of the lunar surface back to Earth (not since 1976, Soviet mission Lunnik 24, four years after Apollo 17 ). Chang’e 6 will do the same, with a specific target on the lunar south pole. Then it will be the turn of the Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8, dedicated to the deep study of the surface, complete with a 3D printer to build research structures in situ and thus prepare the ground for the most ambitious goal: the landing of the first taikonauts on the Moon. Until last December, the Chinese authorities were talking about it “within about ten years”.AND ITALY
In the meantime, Italy will be on board the next Chinese lunar mission. But how
with the retroreflectors made by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn), and in particular by the “Scf_Lab”, the laboratory (among the national laboratories of Frascati) that designs, builds and qualifies this type of systems. These are systems useful for precision positioning through laser tracking. There will be two aboard Chang’e 6: the larger MoonLight, and the smaller Inrri. The two instruments were selected as part of an international call by the CNSA agency dating back to 2019. SUCCESSFUL SYSTEMS
On the other hand, these are systems that are well appreciated abroad. The Infn laboratory boasts a strong partnership with ASI and historical collaborations with ESA and NASA. On board the Perseverance rover which is setting record after record on Mars, there is also the Lara micro-reflector (Laser retroreflector array), made by the Infn on behalf of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). A similar contribution was made on InSight, the NASA lander that left in May 2018 for the Red Planet. A similar contribution will also be on the next steps of the Mars Sample Return program, by NASA-ESA, to bring samples of the Martian surface back to Earth. In perspective, the equipment on the various landers and rovers of the Lara system will make it possible to offer a precise geolocation system. COMPARISON OF SPACE COMPASS
The system was liked by China, which thus selected the Italian micro-reflector for its Chang’e 6 mission. memorandum signed then by Giuseppe Conte (in his first government) and Xi Jinping. Already in 2018, the Interministerial Committee for Space Policies of Palazzo Chigi gave the green light to evaluate the Italian participation in the new Chinese space station, the Tiangong-3, the spearhead of Beijing’s ambitions beyond the atmosphere. It would have been China that identified the construction of a housing module by the Italian industry, given the experience acquired by our local industry on the subject. But then the call of Artemis sounded loud, with the associated geopolitical value of the new space race. In the rest of 2019, Italy formalized its adhesion to the American program, matured ambitions on all fronts (from modules to telecommunications) and downsized its collaboration with China. At the end of 2019, a clear warning came from the US-China Commission of the American Congress: the new Silk Road reaches Space; by following it, China wants to replace the United States even beyond the atmosphere.
