Scientists are studying the feasibility of developing a three-dimensional lunar globe, in an effort to promote the country's first lunar probe project, a leading space administration official said yesterday.

Li Guoping, spokesman for the China National Space Administration, said: "Initial educational and promotional work on the Chang'e I lunar probe project, including the lunar globe, is now under way."

He said since the successful launch of Chang'e I on October 24 from Xichang in Sichuan Province, there has been a real fervor for astronomical and aerospace knowledge among the public, especially young people.

"Scientists involved in the lunar project are keen to promote such knowledge, as this is the first time China has successfully launched a lunar satellite," he said.

However, the development of a 3-D lunar globe will depend on the information sent back by Chang'e, Li said.

"The precondition for such a globe is that we get all the right data on the moon," Li said, without giving a timeframe for the globe's development.

Chang'e I will orbit the moon for one year and carry out explorations of its topography, types and distribution of lunar matter and soil, and the Earth-moon space environment.

Ding Jiekui, a professor at the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, said: "What the probe is expected to send back is just abstract data, which will need six hours to be processed into a two-dimensional picture and about a day to turn it into a three-dimensional one."

"So the development of a 3-D lunar globe will depend on the final pictures created from the data," Ding told China Daily yesterday.

Ding said three books about the country's first lunar probe have already been published to promote astronomical and aerospace knowledge.

Meanwhile, Sun Huixian, deputy chief designer of the satellite system, told a press conference yesterday the pictures sent back by Chang'e I are unlikely to show US astronauts' footprints on the moon, as the resolution is too low.

"To see a clear image of a footprint, with a length of about 30 cm and a width of about 10 cm, the camera would need a centimeter-level resolution. There isn't a lunar probe anywhere in the world right now carrying such a high-resolution camera," Sun said.

"Therefore, I'm sure the images we get from Chang'e I will not show footprints left by US astronauts."

Chang'e I completed its nearly 2-million-km journey to the moon and entered its final orbit yesterday morning. It is expected to relay its first pictures of the moon toward the end of this month.

Xinhua contributed to the story

(China Daily 11/08/2007 page5)