Mr. Ji and Mr. Zhou each said that considerable work had already been done on a crewed lunar lander.
“These works have laid a solid foundation for the manned lunar exploration project,” Mr. Ji said during a news conference at the Jiuquan launch center, before making an allusion to Chinese mythology: “I believe the dream of Chinese people to embrace the moon from the ninth heaven will come true in the near future.”
But sending a person to the moon has been done. Sending a person to Mars is an even bigger prize for China. It has placed an emphasis on shortening the duration of such a trip, perhaps with nuclear propulsion instead of conventional rocket engines. Officials are also determined that any journey will be a round-trip from which all astronauts return alive and in good health.
“Technically, it is feasible in theory, but it has huge challenges in engineering because the scale is very large, we have estimated at least 900 days of travel” based on current technologies, Mr. Zhou said.
With nuclear propulsion, the trip could be trimmed to 500 days, he said, without predicting whether China would adopt that approach.
Huang Weifen, chief designer of China’s astronaut program, said she was looking at ways to make sure that astronauts could stay healthy for a 500-day trip.
“It is another qualitative leap in flying — a very big challenge for people in terms of the medical issues, the psychological issues and living guarantees,” she said.
Despite all these difficulties, China is intent on sticking to its long-term plan for space.
“Landing on the moon, landing on Mars, are very significant progress in the development of human civilization,” Mr. Zhou said. “We may understand and realize its further value step by step. But its role in the development of our human civilization is huge, so it is worth our efforts — it’s worth fighting for.”
Li You contributed research from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
