China is preparing to place a new communications satellite into lunar orbit to facilitate ambitious future Moon landing missions. According to Zhang Lihua of DFH Satellite, led by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the satellite’s developer Queqiao-2 is scheduled to be launched aboard the Long March 8 rocket from the Wenchang Coastal Cosmodrome in early 2024.

In his presentation at the 74th International Astronomical Congress (IAC) held in Baku on October 3, Zhang said that the 1,200-kilogram satellite will be equipped with a 4.2-meter diameter parabolic antenna with a lifetime of more than eight years.

Li Guoping of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) previously presented a slide detailing China’s discoveries at the IAC, stating that Queqiao-2 is planned to be launched in March. Its first mission will be to provide communications support to Chang’e-6; First attempt to collect samples from the far side of the Moon. This mission is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2024 and will target the mid-latitude Apollo Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

The Moon is tidally connected to the Earth, meaning one hemisphere of the planetary body is always facing our planet. Queqiao-2’s 24-hour elliptical frozen orbit will take it beyond the Moon, where it will have direct visibility of both ground stations on Earth and Chang’e-6 in the Apollo crater. Chang’e-6’s operation on the lunar surface will probably be completed in approximately 48 hours.

Queqiao-2 will later support the Chang’e-7 and 2028 Chang’e-8 missions to the Moon’s south pole. For these missions, the lunar satellite will enter orbit for a period of 12 hours. Meanwhile, it will assist the ongoing Chang’e-4 lunar lander and rover following the short-term Chang’e-6 mission. According to Zhang, the elliptical frozen orbit is very stable, so it requires little fuel to maintain.

Queqiao-2, or “Forty Bridges-2”, is a more powerful follow-up to Queqiao, which was launched in 2018 to facilitate the Chang’e-4 mission. This first relay satellite continues to operate in a halo orbit around the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrangian point, approximately 70,000 kilometers from the Moon.

It will use the X and UHF bands to communicate with the spacecraft, and the S and Ka bands to communicate with Earth. It has multiple data rates and software that can be customized. The new satellite will be launched with a pair of experimental CubeSats called Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 to test lunar communications and navigation payloads.

CubeSats are being developed by the new CNSA-led China Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), which is playing an increasing role in the country’s lunar exploration and related diplomatic efforts.

Queqiao-2 also carries a scientific payload. This is the Extreme Ultraviolet Camera, Neutral Atom Array, and Very Long Baseline Earth-Moon Interferometry (VLBI) experiment.

The spacecraft could also help other countries explore the moon. “In addition to providing relay support for future Chinese lunar missions, it is also possible to provide relay communications services for other lunar exploration missions to the south pole or the far side of the moon in the future,” Zhang said. said. The Queqiao-2 satellite is potentially the next step in the constellation of the same name.

The larger Queqiao constellation will provide communications, navigation and remote sensing support for China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project. In particular, a future expanded version of the network will include relay satellites on Venus and Mars to aid deep space exploration.