China Sets Launch Window for Mission to Moon

The Long March 3A rocket and a lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One, which are under wraps, sits on the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in southwest China's Sichuan province, October 20, 2007. China's preparations to launch its first lunar orbiter are on schedule for lift-off later this week, a Chinese official said on Monday. REUTERS/China Daily
The Long March 3A rocket and a lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One, which are under wraps, sits on the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in southwest China's Sichuan province, October 20, 2007. China's preparations to launch its first lunar orbiter are on schedule for lift-off later this week, a Chinese official said on Monday. REUTERS/China Daily
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China Sets Launch Window for Mission to Moon

The Long March 3A rocket and a lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One, which are under wraps, sits on the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in southwest China's Sichuan province, October 20, 2007. China's preparations to launch its first lunar orbiter are on schedule for lift-off later this week, a Chinese official said on Monday. REUTERS/China Daily
The Long March 3A rocket and a lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One, which are under wraps, sits on the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in southwest China's Sichuan province, October 20, 2007. China's preparations to launch its first lunar orbiter are on schedule for lift-off later this week, a Chinese official said on Monday. REUTERS/China Daily

China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon between 4 am and 5 am Beijing time on Tuesday (2000-2100 GMT on Monday), the official Xinhua news agency said, citing information from the country’s National Space Administration.

Chang’e 5 is the country's most ambitious lunar mission yet. If successful, it would be a major advance for China's space program, and some experts said it could pave the way for bringing samples back from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.

The four modules of the Chang’e 5 spacecraft are expected be sent into space Tuesday aboard a massive Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang launch center along the coast of the southern island province of Hainan, according to a NASA description of the mission.

The secretive Chinese National Space Administration has only said that a launch is scheduled for late November, although the Lunar Exploration Project said in a statement Monday that success in orbiting, descending and returning would “lay a solid foundation for future missions.”

The mission's key task is to drill 2 meters (almost 7 feet) beneath the moon's surface and scoop up about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and other debris to be brought back to Earth, according to NASA. That would offer the first opportunity to scientists to study newly obtained lunar material since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

After making the three-day trip from Earth, the Chang’e 5 lander’s time on the moon is scheduled to be short and sweet. It can only stay one lunar daytime, or about 14 Earth days, because it lacks the radioisotope heating units to withstand the moon’s freezing nights, The Associated Press reported.

The lander will dig for materials with its drill and robotic arm and transfer them to what's called an ascender, which will lift off from the moon and dock with the “service capsule.” The materials will then be moved to the return capsule for the trip home to Earth.

The technical complexity of Chang’e 5, with its four components, makes it “remarkable in many ways,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a space expert at the US Naval War College.

“China is showing itself capable of developing and successfully carrying out sustained high-tech programs, important for regional influence and potentially global partnerships,” she said.

Chang’e 4 — which was the first soft landing on the moon’s relatively unexplored far side almost two years ago — is currently collecting full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, information vital for any country that plans to send astronauts to the moon.

China in July became one of three countries to have launched a mission to Mars, in China's case an orbiter and a rover that will search for signs of water on the red planet. The CNSA says the spacecraft Tianwen 1 is on course to arrive at Mars around February.



French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
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French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type, dubbed "Gwada negative," France's blood supply agency has announced.

The announcement was made 15 years after researchers received a blood sample from a patient who was undergoing routine tests ahead of surgery, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on Friday.

"The EFS has just discovered the 48th blood group system in the world!" the agency said in a statement on social network LinkedIn.

"This discovery was officially recognized in early June in Milan by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)."

The scientific association had until now recognized 47 blood group systems.

Thierry Peyrard, a medical biologist at the EFS involved in the discovery, told AFP that a "very unusual" antibody was first found in the patient in 2011.

However, resources at the time did not allow for further research, he added.

Scientists were finally able to unravel the mystery in 2019 thanks to "high-throughput DNA sequencing", which highlighted a genetic mutation, Peyrard said.

The patient, who was 54 at the time and lived in Paris, was undergoing routine tests before surgery when the unknown antibody was detected, Peyrard said.

This woman "is undoubtedly the only known case in the world," said the expert.

"She is the only person in the world who is compatible with herself," he said.

Peyrard said the woman inherited the blood type from her father and mother, who each had the mutated gene.

The name "Gwada negative", which refers to the patient's origins and "sounds good in all languages", has been popular with the experts, said Peyrard.

The ABO blood group system was first discovered in the early 1900s. Thanks to DNA sequencing, the discovery of new blood groups has accelerated in recent years.

Peyrard and colleagues are now hoping to find other people with the same blood group.

"Discovering new blood groups means offering patients with rare blood types a better level of care," the EFS said.