Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, east China - Sept 18, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. China Space Conference
2. China Space Conference sign

FILE: Beijing, China - Aug 3, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Full moon in sky above Palace Museum

Tianjin Municipality, north China - Aug 3, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Full moon

Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, east China - Sept 19, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yanfei, deputy chief designer, China's manned space program:
"The world is seeing a new wave of lunar exploration, manned or unmanned. International cooperation projects in manned lunar exploration are intertwined and influencing each other."

FILE: China - Date Unknown (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Animation showing lunar rover Yutu-2 working on moon

FILE: Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, Hainan Province, south China - July 23, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Long March-5 Y4 rocket carrying Mars probe blasting off from launch pad
9. Various of screen showing rocket flying

Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, east China - Sept 19, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yanfei, deputy chief designer, China's manned space program:
"For example, we need our spacecrafts to have the ability to reach the Moon and return. But the transportation capacity of our Long March rockets cannot satisfy the demands. Currently our Shenzhou spaceships in low-Earth orbit are unable to meet the needs of Moon landing, either. Also, we need a manned lander for the mission."

FILE: China - Exact Location and Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of flying rocket

Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, east China - Sept 19, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Yanfei, deputy chief designer, China's manned space program (partially overlaid with shot 13):
"The second problem is our survival ability under extraterrestrial circumstances. We do not have any experience in that yet. Neither do we have ground support capacity. So far our manned space exploration missions have been focused on tasks in low-Earth orbit. So for lunar scientific exploration and applications, we also need to establish a systematic lunar exploration and application system and propose original scientific exploration targets and methods."

FILE: China - Exact Location and Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
13. Various of moon
++SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: China - Date Unknown (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation - No access Chinese mainland)
14. Animation of moon's surface

A senior Chinese engineer on Saturday noted that there remain several major technological challenges in China's manned lunar exploration mission.

Speaking on China's manned lunar exploration mission at the 2020 China Space Conference, Zhou Yanfei, deputy general designer of China's manned space program, said that they are working on plans for moon landing.

"The world is seeing a new wave of lunar exploration, manned or unmanned. International cooperation projects in manned lunar exploration are intertwined and influencing each other," he said.

He added that China has made important progress in nearly 30 years of space exploration and accumulated rich experience, which has paved the way for its manned lunar exploration mission. Yet still, there are many challenges.

"For example, we need our spacecrafts to have the ability to reach the Moon and return. But the transportation capacity of our Long March rockets cannot satisfy the demands. Currently our Shenzhou spaceships in low-Earth orbit are unable to meet the needs of Moon landing, either. Also, we need a manned lander for the mission," said Zhou.

Another problem for China in this regard is the lack of experience and technologies for surviving under extraterrestrial circumstances and required support systems.

"The second problem is our survival ability under extraterrestrial circumstances. We do not have any experience in that yet. Neither do we have ground support capacity. So far our manned space exploration missions have been focused on tasks in low-Earth orbit. So for lunar scientific exploration and applications, we also need to establish a systematic lunar exploration and application system and propose original scientific exploration targets and methods," said Zhou.