中國的空間項目即將馬力全開

The Chinese government has been making bold announcements about the future of its space program — space stations Mars rovers Moon landings the whole shebang. And in addition to being of note space-wise the country's plans have some pretty interesting political implications.

中國政府對其太空計劃的未來已經做出了大膽的預告：空間站、火星探測器、登月等等包羅萬象。除了空間方面值得注意外，該國的計劃還有一些很有意思的政治影響。

This part of the Chinese space program — the non-military part — has operated on two main lines of effort: a robotic precursor line to explore places and establish basic technological competencies and a human spaceflight line that is always trying to catch up with the robotic line.、

中國空間計劃的這一部分----非軍用部分----分成兩條主線運作：一條是機器人前導主線，用以探索空間，並建立基礎的技術能力；另一條是人類航天主線，總是試圖趕上機器人主線的進度。

The Chinese plan to launch the fourth lunar mission in their Chang'e series of lunar missions in 2018. Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 were both orbiters. The third and fourth in the series were intended to be landers. The upcoming fifth mission (expected to land in 2017) will land on the lunar surface and then return soil samples to Earth. And yes 5 is due to be launched before 4. But there's a reason why.

中國計劃於2018年發射嫦娥系列月球探測的第四次任務。嫦娥1號和嫦娥2號都是繞月軌道器，嫦娥3號和嫦娥4號是着陸器。即將發射的第五次任務預計將於2017年在月球表面着陸，然後把月球土壤樣品帶回地球。沒錯，嫦娥5號的發射將會早於嫦娥4號，這是有原因的。

Chang'e 3 launched in 2013 was China's first moon landing and its first robotic lunar rover. Data from the lander led to the discovery of Ilmenite a commercially important titanium ore on the Moon. In other words the mission was a big success.

2013年發射的嫦娥3號是中國的第一次月球着陸任務，攜帶了中國第一個機器人月球車。着陸器傳回的數據使得人們在月球上發現了鈦鐵礦 —— 一種有着重大經濟價值的鈦礦。換而言之，此次任務取得了巨大成功。

So big in fact that they didn't know what to do with Chang'e 4 since the Chinese hit enough of their mission obxtives that they felt they could proceed directly to missions in which would return lunar samples to Earth. Announcements this year have revealed that the Chinese are going to attempt a first-ever landing of a robotic probe on the far side of the Moon in 2018 — that's Chang'e 4's modified obxtive.

事實上他們不知道中國的嫦娥4號去做什麼，自從中國達到他的目標，他們知道自己能夠直接完成從月球取樣返回地球。今年的報告顯示，中國正在嘗試在2018年使用機器人探測器首次着陸月球背--這是嫦娥4號任務。

China has also announced its intention to land its first entirely Chinese-supported mission to Mars in 2020. The goals for this mission are pretty ambitious as this will be China's first Mars orbiter lander and rover all in one. There have been informal statements floating around for a few years regarding the possibility of a Mars sample return mission in the 2030 timefrx though these press statements don't appear to be official Chinese policy.

中國也宣稱計劃在2020年發射第一個全中國造的探測器着陸火星。這一雄心勃勃的任務將包含中國首個火星着陸器和火星車。非正式的報告顯示中國近幾年在考慮2030年完成火星採樣返回任務的可能性，該消息沒有出現在政府官方政策中。