(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-31 16:12

"Since it takes time for China to develop and build new-generation carrier rockets, Chang'e-2 for the second-stage exploration will most likely lift off on the existing Long March 3A," Ye said.

However, earlier reports suggested the Chang'e-2 and 3 were possibly to blast off on new carrier rockets.

Some other scientists echoed Ye, pointing out that the limited thrust of Chinese rockets posed a major challenge for China's moon probe project, especially a manned mission.

Luan Enjie, chief commander of China's lunar probe project, told Xinhua that existing carrier rockets only had a thrust of 600 tons, whereas a thrust of 3,000 to 4,000 tons was needed to send humans to the moon. The larger thrust would allow a rocket to carry at least 100 tons.

Ye said China had no timetable for a manned moon landing.

Other challenges included monitoring antenna and limited human resources.

Ye said the United States had arranged monitoring antenna around the world, while China was limited to its own territory. Even at home, antenna for deep space exploration had yet to be installed.

Ouyang Ziyuan, another senior scientist in the moon probe project, said it suffered from a dearth of technical talent needed for a much larger capacity of carrier rockets and monitoring antenna.

China has already announced plans for the development of a new family of rocket launchers and the building of a space launch center.

The Long March 5 carrier rockets will be made in the northern coastal city of Tianjin while the new launch center will be located in the southernmost province of Hainan.

Media reports said the next-generation rockets would be able to lift 25 tons of payload to near-earth orbit, up from the current nine tons; and 14 tons of payload to geosynchronous orbits, up from five tons.

As the launch center in Hainan will not be ready until 2012, the new generation rockets will not blast off before 2013, media reports said.

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