中国的空间项目即将马力全开

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.

中国政府对其太空计划的未来已经做出了大胆的预告：空间站、火星探测器、登月等等包罗万象。除了空间方面值得注意外，该国的计划还有一些很有意思的政治影响。

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.、

中国空间计划的这一部分----非军用部分----分成两条主线运作：一条是机器人前导主线，用以探索空间，并建立基础的技术能力；另一条是人类航天主线，总是试图赶上机器人主线的进度。

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.

中国计划于2018年发射嫦娥系列月球探测的第四次任务。嫦娥1号和嫦娥2号都是绕月轨道器，嫦娥3号和嫦娥4号是着陆器。即将发射的第五次任务预计将于2017年在月球表面着陆，然后把月球土壤样品带回地球。没错，嫦娥5号的发射将会早于嫦娥4号，这是有原因的。

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年发射的嫦娥3号是中国的第一次月球着陆任务，携带了中国第一个机器人月球车。着陆器传回的数据使得人们在月球上发现了钛铁矿 —— 一种有着重大经济价值的钛矿。换而言之，此次任务取得了巨大成功。

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.

事实上他们不知道中国的嫦娥4号去做什么，自从中国达到他的目标，他们知道自己能够直接完成从月球取样返回地球。今年的报告显示，中国正在尝试在2018年使用机器人探测器首次着陆月球背--这是嫦娥4号任务。

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.

中国也宣称计划在2020年发射第一个全中国造的探测器着陆火星。这一雄心勃勃的任务将包含中国首个火星着陆器和火星车。非正式的报告显示中国近几年在考虑2030年完成火星采样返回任务的可能性，该消息没有出现在政府官方政策中。