China's lunar orbiter gets close-up pictures of the Moon

An image of a planned Moon landing site captured by an orbiting service module put in place by China's returned unmanned lunar orbiter launched in October last year.[Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China obtained detailed images of a planned Moon landing site on Wednesday, where a future Chang'e-5 mission is expected to conduct a soft landing and collect samples.

The pictures, with a resolution of 1 meter, were captured by an orbiting service module put in place by the country's returned unmanned lunar orbiter launched in October last year, according to a statement by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).

The SASTIND said the pictures were taken at a point 30 km from the Moon between Sunday and Wednesday.

The module also simulated moves and the controlling process expected to be conducted by the orbiting and ascender modules of the Chang'e-5 probe prior to a scheduled rendezvous by the two modules in the Moon's orbit.

The statement said the current service module is in good condition and will carry out further scientific experiments to study the lunar gravity field.

The latest mission is to obtain data for the Chang'e-5 probe scheduled for 2017, which will see an unmanned spacecraft land on the Moon, collect samples and return to Earth.