Chang’e-7: China’s water-hunting lunar south pole mission

Highlights

• Chang’e-7 will attempt the first direct search for water ice inside some of the coldest, darkest places in the Solar System
• The mission will involve orbiting, landing, roving, and hopping spacecraft
• The mission is the first in a new phase of Chinese lunar exploration, with the ultimate aim being the construction of the International Lunar Research Station

Why is China targeting the lunar south pole?

Chang’e‑7 is China’s mission to seek out water ice on the Moon. It is the country’s most sophisticated robotic lunar mission to date, focused squarely on the lunar south pole, one of the Moon’s most scientifically and strategically important regions. The mission’s complex architecture includes an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a small hopping spacecraft, with further support from the already-orbiting Queqiao-2 relay satellite. 

The main aims include mapping resources near the lunar south pole and seeking out water ice and other volatiles in the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions, which include craters that haven’t seen sunlight for potentially billions of years and are some of the coldest places in the Solar System. Chang’e-7 is scheduled to make this attempt before NASA’s VIPER lunar south pole volatiles-hunting mission, which could launch in 2027. Other science objectives include studying surface processes, providing new insights into the evolution of the Moon and wider Solar System, and determining the lunar impact history. Scientists are targeting lunar water to assess its potential for in-situ resource utilization, which could support a sustained human presence on the Moon. A launch on a Long March 5 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center is planned for the second half of 2026.

The Chang’e-7 mission follows a series of successful full Chang’e missions, starting with the Chang’e-1 orbiter in 2007 and culminating with the Chang’e-5 near-side lunar sample return in 2020. The more complex Chang’e-6 far-side sample return in 2024 and Chang’e-7 are part of a  new, fourth phase of Chinese lunar exploration and, together with Chang’e-8 around 2029, are part of preparations for China’s planned International Lunar Research Station.

Where will Chang’e-7 land?

China is aiming to make a high-precision landing with Chang’e-7, both to enable the mission to achieve its core objective of exploring a shadowed crater to seek water ice and to demonstrate this key capability for later lunar voyages. While previous Chang’e missions had landing ellipses of several kilometers, Chang’e-7 calls for a landing accuracy of better than 100 meters (328 feet), according to a 2023 paper on the mission and spacecraft design. Added to this challenge is that this will be China’s first lunar landing attempt outside of mid-latitudes.

Chang’e-7 has not publicly announced a final landing area, but the preferred candidate site is known to be the rim of Shackleton crater, which offers ample sunlight for the solar-powered spacecraft and access to permanently shadowed craters. The Chang’e-7 orbiter, using its high-resolution optical camera and radar, may also be used to provide further data before the final site is chosen, with selection criteria including illumination conditions, the safety of the lunar terrain, and the potential for scientific return.

How will Chang’e-7 achieve its objectives?

Chang’e-7 has 18 science payloads across its four spacecraft, including some built with international cooperation. The orbiter is equipped with five main scientific payloads, including a high-resolution stereo-mapping camera, a miniature synthetic-aperture radar, a wide-band infrared-spectrum mineral-imaging analyzer, a neutron-gamma spectrometer, and a magnetometer. It also features a hyperspectral imager from the Egyptian Space Agency and the Bahrain National Space Science Agency, a Moon-based Dual-channel Earth Radiation Spectrometer with involvement from Switzerland, and a space weather detector from the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand.

The lander carries a lunar seismograph to detect moonquakes, a lunar surface environment detection system, a landing camera, and a topography camera. It also carries a laser corner reflector from Italy, a dust and electric field sensor developed by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a wide-field telescope developed by the International Lunar Observatory Association in Hawaii.

The rover is equipped with a panoramic camera, a magnetometer, a Raman spectrometer, a lunar-penetrating radar, and an in-situ volatiles measurement system. The mission also includes a hopper, sometimes described as a mini-flying probe with legs, that carries a water-molecule analyzer. Queqiao-2 carries a further three payloads. 

Following the light, flights into darkness

The rover is based on the Yutu rovers from the Chang’e-3 and Chang’e-4 missions of the 2010s and will analyze the surface and seek out subsurface water using a lunar penetrating radar. At the lunar south pole, where the Sun stays low on the horizon, spacecraft must effectively ‘follow the light’ to maintain power, avoiding long periods of darkness. After landing, the rover will begin taking images of itself, its companion spacecraft, and its surroundings. This data will be used to evaluate lighting conditions and plan drive routes and hibernation times to keep it illuminated by the Sun.

The hopper is designed for multiple flights, each of at least 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), targeting landings in dark, cold, shadowed craters. After landing in a shadowed crater, the hopper will move away from the area affected by its landing using its legs, then use its water molecule analyzer to drill for and extract material, aiming to detect water ice, methane, and other volatiles via mass spectrometry. The hopper will then need to return to sunlight to continue operating.

The hopper could become the second spacecraft, after NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, to make separate flights across an extraterrestrial body, but also be the first mobile legged spacecraft to carry out exploration beyond the Earth. Its findings could help confirm the presence of water ice on the Moon and mark a key step toward a potential sustained human lunar presence.

More resources

Scientific objectives and payload configuration of the Chang'E-7 mission

Selection of Landing Sites for the Chang’E-7 Mission Using Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data