China is preparing for the launch of its first moon rover in a the next few months, according to reports.
China's robotic Chang'e 3 mission has yet to set an official launch date, but it is slated to make its way into space on Dec. 2013. The launch marks a big step in China's growth of their lunar exploration program.
Chang'e 3 will become the nation's first craft to attempt to land the space rover on the surface of the moon.
According to reports, China confirmed it's in the final testing stage of Chang'e 3 probe. The China National Space Administration released a statement confirming "the nation carried out a 40-day ground test to mimic the lunar environment, in an attempt to make sure that Chang'e 3 can endure the extreme temperatures on the moon."
Chang'e 3 mission will consist of a service module and a lunar landing vehicle. According to Space.com, the rover would "land softly on the moon's surface and deploy a six-wheeled rover to explore the areas surrounding the landing spot."
"It is gratifying to finally see an exploration vehicle landing on the moon," Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, the principal investigator for the high-powered Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, told Space.com. "It has been 40 years since [the Soviet Union's] Lunokhod 2. And there is much to see and do.
"It will certainly be fun to watch their progress from 100 kilometers above. The moon is a complicated and mysterious world," he said.
China has made headlines recently for their current space mission. Three astronauts are currently orbiting space in the Shenzhou-10 mission.
The astronauts have been docked on China's Tiangong-1 space module and laboratory since June 13. The team plans to spend 15 days in orbit, which would make the Shenzhou-10 mission the longest manned spaceflight in China's history.
