Unmanned Flight To Be Launched By 2013
Germany is looking
towards the moon again, and not just from the ground.
The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) announced Friday its goal is
to launch an unmanned flight to the earth's satellite by 2013.
"Why shouldn't we do it alone?" asked Walter Doellinger,
director of the Centre. "We have the technology, we have the
know-how, and we have the experience with robots," reported The
Times.
As outlined to scientists at a meeting last week, Germany will
send a satellite with a high-resolution camera to orbit the Moon
for four years to prepare the first detailed lunar map. When
completed, a rocket will land a robot soil-sampler.
Doellinger added, "The probe will examine the moon's surface and
provide indications of significant geological formations that could
later be of interest for drilling."
German scientists are recognized as leaders in the fields of
outer space measurement, photographic and radar technology,
including the high-resolution cameras on board the European Space
Agency craft Mars Express.
While the German orbiter will be launched by 2013, the soil
sampler should be on the Moon before 2020. The US manned space
program may also benefit from the Moon atlas if NASA moves ahead
with its plans to establish a lunar base.
The Times reports there have been clear signals from the
German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who is
also a physicist -- that it is willing to initially fund the
five-year Lunar Exploration Orbiter project.
It is a sign of the new German self-confidence, one that will be
sure to attract controversy.
Germany's European partners have viewed attempts to develop a
space program outside established institutions like the European
Space Agency (ESA) with suspicion, however.
It was under the Nazis that German scientists made important
breakthroughs towards space travel in October 1942, by launching an
A4 rocket 62 miles into space.
The rocket design, renamed the
V2, was later used to bombard the South East of England and Antwerp
in Belgium, killing thousands. The German scientist Wernher von
Braun later helped America in the space race.
Completing a moon mission would catapult the country into the
league of nations which can send spacecraft into orbit.
Details would be announced in early 2008. Current estimated
costs are $390 million dollars over five years, in addition to the
annual DLR budget of $924 million dollars.
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