China has made space flight history again.
The country’s robotic mission Chang’e 6 returned material from the mysterious far side of the moon to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) – something that had never been done before.
The historic moment occurred Tuesday at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time), when the Chang’e 6 return capsule touched down in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Chang’e 6 consists of four modules: a lunar lander, a return capsule, an orbiter and a booster (a small rocket carried by the lander).
Connected: China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft finds long-sought particles on the far side of the moon
This device was launched on May 3 and arrived in lunar orbit five days later. On June 1, the lander crashed into Apollo Crater, which lies within the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA), a 1,600-mile (2,500-kilometer) wide impact feature on the far side of the moon.
The lander collected about 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar material using a scoop and a drill. This precious payload was launched aboard the ascender on June 3 and rendezvoused with the mission’s orbiter a few days later.
The orbiter — carrying the samples inside its return capsule — began heading toward Earth on or about June 21, according to NASA. (China has provided few official updates on the timeline and timing of Chang’e 6.) The sample’s long journey ended early Tuesday with the landing of the return capsule.
Chang’e 6 is not the first successful lunar sample return mission; The Soviet Union, the United States and China (with the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020) have all brought back material from Earth’s nearest neighbor. But those previous efforts collected all the dirt and rocks on the near side of the Moon, the one that always faces Earth.
The far side, which is very different from the near side, is more difficult to explore. Because the far side is far from Earth, a relay satellite is required to communicate with spacecraft operating there. (China has launched two such relay satellites to date.) The far side is thus little studied, so scientists are excited to get a closer look at Chang’e 6’s samples.
The material could help answer some vexing questions about the early history of the solar system. For example, the SPA basin formed 4.26 billion years ago—several hundred million years after most of the lunar craters were blasted by asteroids and comets during a violent stretch known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.
“Did the SPA form as part of the Late Heavy Bombardment? Or was it a separate event? By getting precise dates for the basin and the craters on it, we will be able to better understand the moon’s history,” the Society wrote non-profit Planetary. in a description of the Chang’e 6 mission.
“This also has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth,” the Planetary Society added. “It is possible that asteroids delivered water and organic material to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment. Understanding the timing and circumstances of this event is critical to unraveling our origin story.”
Chang’e 6 was China’s second mission to the far side of the Moon; in January 2019, Chang’e 4 landed there a rover named Yutu 2, which remains active today. No other nation has placed any soft equipment on the far side of the moon.
China’s plans for the moon don’t end with Chang’e 6. The nation plans to launch Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 in 2026 and 2028, respectively. The latest mission will help test the technologies needed to create a lunar base, which China aims to build near the ice-rich South Pole in the 2030s.
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Image Source : www.space.com
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