中国太空网

       本报讯 “中国的国旗，还是留给宇航员去插上月球。”中国探月工程首席科学家、中科院院士欧阳自远在昨日在沪举行的《我们距离嫦娥还有多远》报告中透露，我国探月二期工程将于2012年发射软着陆器和月球车，并对月球进行精细探测，其中“月球车着陆点绝对有中国标志”，但不会用机器人去插上五星红旗。

月球车上有中国标志  

此前印度有消息称：将在2020年实施载人登月计划，把该国国旗插到月球上，比中国要早4年。“我们什么时候说要2024年载人登月了？”欧阳自远表示，中国的探月工程分三步走，即绕月、落月和采样返回，都属于不载人探月活动。 

有人提出，中国月球车登月时，就可利用机器人把五星红旗插到月球上去。对此，欧阳自远指出，5年内我国会实施探月二期工程，将发射软着陆器和月球车，进行精细的月球探测，但不会如此操作。“月球车上绝对有中国标志，证明我们来过了。不过，插国旗时，最好是我们的人上去，现在已有相当多部门在积极准备”。 

据了解，月球车将围绕着落器在10公里范围内进行移动探测，利用测月雷达，月球车对月球的地形、地貌和地质构造进行了解，还将探测月球表面的化学成分和矿物成分。

“落”月是个大难题

这位中国探月工程的首席科学家坦言，在二期工程中，“落”月是个大难题。“着陆技术太难了，我们之前根本没有经验。”

“落”到底难在哪里？欧阳自远表示，月球上没有空气，所以不能用传统的降落伞等技术，也不适合用气囊。在中国科学家的设想中，月球软着陆器将携带月球车依靠反推火箭实施缓冲，在月球上徐徐降落，随后，就像美国的火星探测车“机遇号”和“勇气号”一样，着陆器自动伸出斜梯供月球车登陆月球。

“在离月球15公里时减速、2公里时再减速，在100米时实现反推，然后在4米处调整着陆。”欧阳自远表示，就算顺利到了月球，面对如此恶劣的环境，月球车还是要经历设备部件的考验。“另外，月球表面坑坑洼洼，顺利行走也是个问题。” 

目前，全国已有30家单位研制月球车。欧阳自远表示，希望从中进行优选。

将建首个月基天文台

欧阳自远透露，在二期月球探测工程中，中国将把天文望远镜搬到月球上去，建立世界上首个月基天文观测台。

“月球上没有任何人为活动干扰，没有大气，没有刮风下雨，再加上月球上没有磁场，所以在月球上进行天文观测，可以达到非常高的分辨率，而且在月球上操作起来也比在卫星上架一个望远镜要简便得多。”欧阳自远表示，月球上一个晚上有14天，可以长期进行天文观测，有可能的话甚至可放上一些低频、紫外、光学等各种望远镜。(作者：罗菁) 劳动报

第一幅月面图像局部区域的假彩色地形图。（来源：中国网）

嫦娥一号的第一轨原始数据。左侧图像为CCD相机拍下的前视、正视、后视图片。（来源：中国网）

中国首次月球探测工程第一幅月面图像的飞行效果图。（来源：中国网）

由嫦娥一号传回的信号绘制的第一幅月面三维立体效果图今天（2日）上午出现在中科院国家科学图书馆，来自探月工程应用系统总体部和国家天文台的部分专家与观众进行面对面交流，讲述中国第一幅月面图及其背后的故事。

据专家介绍，第一幅月面图的虚拟信号早在11月20日、21日两天就传回地面，23日时第一幅月面图的三维效果图已基本绘制完毕，在26日第一幅月面图发布之前，有关人员已听到了嫦娥一号所载的32首歌曲，所有流程都非常顺利。在今天（2日）上午的交流中，专家们带来了包括三维立体效果图在内的多幅月面图，这些图均为首次公布。记者看到，三维立体图非常精致，上面的大小环形山和直径不一的撞击坑清晰可见。

受无线电波接收距离所限，32首歌曲无法直接传送到公众手中的无线接收器上，只有先由国家专业天文设备接收后传到国家级电台、电视台、网站，公众再接收或下载，有关时间由上级有关部门确定。 

据介绍，绕月二期工程将发两个空间探测器上去，一是着落器，在月球表面固定进行探测，另一个是巡视探测器，即月球车，它将围绕着落器在10公里范围内进行移动探测，月球车上将携带测月雷达，对月球表面的巡视探测效果远远好于遥感测量。（

The United States and China on Thursday traded rhetorical broadsides over US actions on Taiwan and Tibet, as well as Beijing barring a US warship from a family holiday get-together in Hong Kong.

Beijing insisted Washington's recent arms sales to Taiwan and support for Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had left relations "disturbed and harmed" and linked those steps to last week's port-of-call dispute.

US officials had said Washington formally complained to China after a US aircraft carrier was denied entry for a Thanksgiving holiday stop that had drawn sailors' loved ones halfway around the world in hopes of a reunion.

But on Thursday, the United States sent a mixed message over the USS Kitty Hawk being turned away, as the White House demanded more "clarification" from Beijing and the Pentagon insisted it was "moving on" from the spat.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao denied that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had told US President George W. Bush that the US aircraft carrier was kept out of Hong Kong because of a "misunderstanding."

"On the issue of port visits, China acts in accordance with the principles of its sovereignty and approves specific visits on a case-by-case basis," Liu said one day after Yang visited the White House.

Liu also implicitly linked US moves on Taiwan and the Dalai Lama to the decision to block the ship -- prompting White House spokeswoman Dana Perino to declare Washington "surprised by that explanation."

"We are seeking clarification," Perino told reporters, insisting Yang had told Bush Wednesday "it was a misunderstanding, there was a miscommunication."

"Regardless, it was wrong for this ship to be turned away. It inconvenienced an awful lot of families who had plans to be there to spend Thanskgiving with sailors who are on that ship, and I'm sure that they suffered a tremendous amount of disappointment because of it," said Perino.

But asked whether Washington agreed with Beijing that relations had been damaged by US arms sales to Taiwan and a high-profile show of support for the Dalai Lama, Perino sidestepped the issue.

"We are seeking clarification," she repeated. "We have lots of coooperation with China on a variety of issues."

The Pentagon reached out even more, with spokesman Bryan Whitman saying that Washington had not yet received China's explanation for why the Kitty Hawk and two other warships had been turned away but declaring: "We are moving on."

"The foreign minister has given an explanation that it was a misunderstanding. We expressed our concern. We're going to move beyond it," Whitman told reporters.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asian affairs David Sedney complained formally to the Chinese military attach?in Washington on Wednesday about the decision denying the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and two small minesweepers to make port calls at Hong Kong.

"We expect and our hope is we will continue to have a strong military-to-military relationship with the Chinese," Whitman said.

Asked earlier about the port-of-call dispute, which has angered senior US politicians and military figures, Liu had warned that "due to the erroneous practices of the US, relations have been disturbed and harmed."

China views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous figure seeking independence for Tibet, and considers Taiwan a renegade province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

On a sunnier note for Sino-US relations, US officials anounced China had agreed to a "full elimination" of a range of industrial subsidies to settle a complaint filed by Washington before the World Trade Organization (WTO).

US actions over Tibet and Taiwan have damaged relations between China and the United States, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday amid a row over US naval calls to Hong Kong.

"Recently, due to the erroneous practices of the US, relations have been disturbed and harmed," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Liu cited a US congressional medal awarded to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in October as one of the reasons for the damaged ties. China views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous figure seeking independence for Tibet.

Liu also referred to Washington's recent approval of about three billion dollars' worth of weapon sales to Taiwan. China views Taiwan as part of its territory that must eventually be reunified, by force if necessary.

Liu gave his comments when questioned as to why China had blocked US naval vessels from entering Hong Kong recently, moves that have angered senior politicians and military figures in the United States.

He did not directly link the blocked naval visits to Taiwan and Tibet, but said China's decisions on whether to allow the vessels into the southern Chinese territory were a question of national sovereignty.

"On the issue of port visits, China acts in accordance with the principles of its sovereignty and approves specific visits on a case-by-case basis," Liu said.

In regards to the highest-profile incident, involving the USS Kitty Hawk not making it to Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday stop last week, Liu insisted that the vessel had been given approval to visit.

US officials have said China initially denied entry, then only gave permission after the Kitty Hawk had left the area and relatives of the sailors who had travelled to Hong Kong had also gone.

The issue was raised in a Wednesday meeting in Washington between President George W. Bush and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who called the whole affair a "misunderstanding," a White House spokesman said.

The United States said Wednesday it had protested to China over the incident. Liu said Beijing had not received any such protest.

"We have taken note of the reports. I want to clarify that all the reports are not true," Liu said when asked about Yang's comments, according to Xinhua news agency.

NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has arrived at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington for its final round of testing. The GLAST spacecraft has successfully completed two of its three environmental tests at the prime contractor, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Ariz. These tests included exposure to extreme vibrations and electromagnetic fields.

"We've completed two of the big three tests, and now we're going to the NRL to perform the third," said GLAST project manager Kevin Grady of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

On November 26, the spacecraft began its drive across the country in a specially modified truck. GLAST arrived at NRL on November 28. At NRL, the spacecraft will undergo thermal and vacuum testing to ensure that it can survive the 90-degree F (50-degree C) temperature swings it will experience in Earth orbit.

"Although gamma rays can travel billions of light-years across the universe, they can't penetrate Earth's atmosphere, so we must launch our instruments into space. We need to ensure the observatory can function in the space environment, and that is the main goal of the testing about to take place," says GLAST project scientist Steve Ritz of NASA Goddard.

After GLAST finishes the thermal-vac testing, it will be trucked or flown to Cape Canaveral, Fla. There, the solar arrays and flight battery will be added to the spacecraft, and it will be fueled with propellant. The launch, aboard a Delta II Heavy rocket, is scheduled for no earlier than May 29, 2008.

GLAST will carry two instruments, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), to study the extreme universe, where nature harnesses energies far beyond anything scientists can achieve in their most elaborate experiments on Earth. GLAST may answer the mystery of how black holes accelerate jets of particles to near-light speed, and it may fill in gaps in our knowledge of stupendously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).

The LAT, which works like a particle detector rather than a conventional telescope, greatly improves upon all previous gamma-ray instruments. It is more than 30 times as sensitive to faint sources, it covers a much broader range of gamma-ray wavelengths, it can locate sources much more precisely, and it can measure the arrival time of each gamma ray more accurately.

"With the LAT we will be able to pinpoint locations in the universe where matter is accelerated to extremely high-energies, shedding new light on the origin of cosmic rays," says LAT principal investigator Peter Michelson of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

"We will also observe neutron stars and learn how they produce their lighthouse-like particle beams. The LAT will help astronomers determine the nature of hundreds of gamma-ray sources seen by previous missions, but whose nature remains shrouded in mystery. Most exciting of all, the LAT will find thousands of previously unknown gamma-ray sources."

"We expect that the GBM will detect about 200 GRBs per year," said GBM principal investigator Charles "Chip" Meegan of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "With the LAT and GBM working together, and with other satellites, we hope to understand how the gamma rays are actually produced in GRBs, and whether GRBs create high-energy gamma rays that were beyond the range of previous satellites."

From its perch in low-Earth orbit, GLAST will also test key concepts in fundamental physics, such as whether all forms of light -- regardless of wavelength -- travel at the same speed. It might help physicists determine the nature of dark matter by catching the gamma-ray signature of dark-matter particles annihilating one another. It might even detect gamma rays from exploding black holes.

NASA's GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

(CNN) -- When China's lunar orbiter blasted off last month, there was not a cheer or smile or a "whoo-haaa" to be had in mission control.

Perhaps because for the government scientists, it was just another small step in an ambitious space program which could ultimately see a Chinese space station orbiting the Earth, a Chinese moon colony and a joint China-Russia explorer on Mars.

If all goes well, and so far it has, the Chang'e 1 will spend the next year orbiting the moon, mapping the surface and looking for resources. Next, the Chinese hope to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2012, with a robotic mission to bring back samples by 2017. Officials have recently backpedaled from goals of putting a taikonaut (the Chinese version of an astronaut or cosmonaut) on the moon by 2020, but analysts believe that is still a pressing ambition.

"If China can go to the moon, eventually with a manned program, it will represent the ultimate achievement for China in making itself essentially the second most important space power, accomplishing what even the Soviets had not," says Dean Cheng, a China military analyst for CNA, a private research corporation.

According to Cheng, the Chinese are now embarking on a systematic space program the world has not seen since the 1960's and for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States is facing real competition. That may explain why the head of NASA, Michael Griffin, recently warned that "China will be back on the moon before we are . . . I think when that happens Americans will not like it."

But there could be a lot more at stake than just lunar boasting rights. It's unlikely the Chinese will land at Tranquility Base and pull down the Stars and Stripes. But the goal could be mining resources. One powerful, potential fuel source is helium-3. Helium-3 originated from the sun and was deposited in the moon's soil by the solar wind. It is estimated there are up to two million tons on the moon, and virtually none on Earth.

"If we can ever get helium-3 and helium-3 to fuse together it is what we call nuclear power without nuclear waste -- there is no radioactivity associated with that reactor," says Professor Gerald Kulcinski, an expert in helium from the University of Wisconsin.

The key though, says Kulcinski, will be developing a fusion reactor, which he says could be done within 15 to 20 years, in tandem with a program to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Just four tons of helium-3 would be enough to supply all the power needs for the United States for a year, two shuttle payloads according to Kulcinski.

Analysts believe the lure of such potent resources is one of the reasons behind China's exploration of space. State media reported last month details of a new rocket with enough thrust to put a space station into orbit. When it's developed, the Long March 5 will have almost three times the power of existing rockets.

China has long wanted to be part of the international space station, but has always been denied, partly it's believed because of U.S. concerns. But that may not be a problem for the Chinese if they can send their own space station into orbit, reportedly by 2020. But again the Chinese are sending mixed messages, saying no firm date has been decided. More immediately, there are plans a for televised space walk by three taikonauts next year, according to the Shanghai Daily.

At a recent news conference Pei Zhaoyu from China's space administration repeated at least three times that "China has always adhered to the principle of peaceful use of outer space." But he made no mention of China's satellite killer missile which was tested earlier this year, destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite in low Earth orbit.

That and the fact that China's space administration is controlled by the military has many in Washington worried about where the Chinese are heading. Technologically, the Chinese are still behind the United States, but analysts warn that might not be the case for much longer.

"The Chinese have the advantage of a centralized decision-making authority where they can say we will do that and we will apply those funds," says Cheng, while pointing out that NASA is at the mercy of Congress, politics and a new president in 2009 who may have new goals and ambitions.

China has always insisted that it's not in a space race with any country, especially the United States -- but it is on a slow, relentless march to the moon, and beyond.

Messier 74, also called NGC 628, is a stunning example of a grand-design spiral galaxy that is viewed by Earth observers nearly face-on. Its perfectly symmetrical spiral arms emanate from the central nucleus and are dotted with clusters of young blue stars. In the new Hubble image a smattering of bright pink regions decorating the spiral arms can also be seen.

These are huge, relatively short-lived, clouds of hydrogen gas which glow due to the strong radiation from hot, young stars embedded within them; glowing pink regions of ionized hydrogen (hydrogen that has lost its electrons). These regions of star formation show an excess of light at ultraviolet wavelengths and astronomers call them HII regions.

Tracing along the spiral arms are winding dust lanes that begin very near the galaxy's nucleus and follow along the length of the spiral arms. These spiral arms are not actually static arms like spokes on a wheel. They are in fact density waves and move around the galaxy's disc compressing gas - just as sound waves compress the air on Earth - creating a new generation of young blue stars.

Messier 74 is located roughly 32 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the Fish. It is the dominant member of a small group of about half a dozen galaxies, the Messier 74 galaxy group. In its entirety, it is estimated that Messier 74 is home to about 100 thousand million stars, making it slightly smaller than our Milky Way.

The spiral galaxy was first discovered by the French astronomer, Pierre Mechain, in 1780. Weeks later it was added to Charles Messier's famous catalogue of deep-sky objects. Of all the objects in Messier's catalogue, number 74 has the lowest surface brightness. It is so difficult for amateur astronomers to spot through a telescope that it has been given the nickname the Phantom Galaxy.

This Hubble image of Messier 74 is a composite of Advanced Camera for Surveys' data taken in 2003 and 2005. The filters used to create the colour image isolate light from blue, visible, and infrared portions of the spectrum, as well as emission from ionized hydrogen.

A small segment of this image used data from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope/Gemini Observatory telescope to fill in a region which Hubble did not image.

Russian scientists have completed the first stage of preparations for an experimental Mars mission simulation, Mars-500, a medical research institute announced on Thursday. The purpose of the main experiment, expected to begin in late 2008, is to simulate a space flight to Mars taking into account all ramifications, including a 250-day "trip" to the Red Planet, a 30-day period on its surface, and a 240-day return flight.

"A crew comprising five men and one woman tested ground modules and systems in order to assess their readiness for more lengthy and realistic experiments in the future, as part of the Mars-500 project," said a spokesperson for the Russian Institute of Biological Problems, which runs the experiment.

The first test, whose participants were all Russians, was conducted on November 15-29 in life-support and medical modules at the institute's research facility.

"During the experiment, the crewmembers lived and worked in two fully isolated modules. They tested newly-designed equipment and tools used for life support, control, and communications," the spokesperson said.

Two Europeans and four Russians have been selected for the main "flight" simulation, which may last from 520 to 700 days.

During their nearly two-year isolation, crewmembers will experience many of the conditions likely to be encountered by astronauts on a real space flight.

They will adhere to a strict daily regime of work, rest and exercise, and exactly follow the diet of crews aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The Russian scientists will conduct a second preliminary 105-day experiment in the first half of 2008.