by China goes back to the mysterious far side of the moon – and this time, the nation will bring back some souvenirs.
The Chang’e 6 robotic mission was launched today (May 3) at 5:27 am EDT (0927 GMT; 5:27 pm Beijing time), riding on a Long March 5 rocket from a pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, in southern China. Hainan Province.
If the plan goes through, Chang’e 6 will touch the far side of the moon, scoop up some samples and rocket them back to Earth – something that has never been done before. In fact, only one mission has made a soft landing on the side of the moon: Chang’e 4, which was sent down by a lander-rover duo in January 2019.
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The hidden face of the moon
The moon is tidally locked to Earth, completing one rotation in the same time it takes to orbit our planet. This means that observers on Earth see only one side of the moon – what we call the near side.
In addition to being more familiar with the far side, it’s easier for us to explore the near side, which explains why all surface missions before Chang’e 4 – including the efforts of the NASA Apollo crews in the 1960s and early 1970s – that. face.
A rover or lander mission to the far end faces communication challenges, requiring a lunar orbiter to send messages to and from mission control here on Earth. China launched one such relay satellite, called Queqiao, ahead of Chang’e 4 and sent another, Queqiao 2, into lunar orbit last March to prepare for Chang’e 6 and followed by surface missions.
There are strong reasons, beyond the spirit of curiosity and exploration, to study the far side nearby, scientists stress. It is very different from the adjacent side; for example, although vast basalt plains called maria cover about one-third of the moon’s face, these dark “seas” of volcanic rock comprise only 1% of the far side’s surface.
Researchers don’t know what causes such differences, and they hope a closer look at samples from beyond will help them.
Related: The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth’s companion
A complex mission
Chang’e 6 consists of four elements: a lunar orbiter, a lander, an ascender and an Earth-reentry module.
If all goes according to plan, the lander (with ascender attached) will touch down inside the Apollo crater, which is part of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system. The SPA basin is about 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) wide, and its ancient impact rocks hold clues to the moon’s early history and evolution.
“The region has long been thought of as a key to understanding how and when massive objects collided with the moon and Earth billions of years ago, and why the far side of the moon is so different from the other side,” wrote the non-profit Planetary Society. in the description of the Chang’e 6 mission.
The Chang’e 6 lander will collect 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar dirt and rock, some scraped from the surface and some drilled up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) underground. This material will then be sent aboard the ascender, to rendezvous with the lunar orbit.
The samples will be transferred to the re-entry module, which goes aboard the orbiter. The orbiter will then return to Earth, releasing the reentry module for a fiery journey through Earth’s atmosphere. This entire journey, from today’s launch to the arrival of the samples on Earth, is expected to take 53 days.
The mission’s architecture is similar to that of China’s first-ever lunar return mission, Chang’e 5, which delivered material from the near-Earth side in December 2020. This is not surprising, since it was built Chang’e 6 as a backup for Chang’e 5.
The success of Chang’e 5 made China only the third nation to return a lunar sample mission, after the Soviet Union and the United States. The Apollo astronauts brought most of the lunar material brought to Earth, hauling 842 pounds (382 kg) of the material home between 1969 and 1972.
A new moon race?
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Chang’e 6 is part of a concerted and ambitious lunar push, which China hopes will land a crew on Earth’s nearest neighbor by 2030.
And that initial astronaut mission is not designed to be a one-off mission. In the 2030s, China plans to build a manned pole near the moon’s south pole called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), with the help of Russia and other international partners.
China has already begun testing some of the technology that could help lay the groundwork for the ILRS. In March, for example, the Queqiao 2 relay satellite launched together with two other spacecraft called Tiandu 1 and Tiandu 2, which are conducting communication and navigation experiments near the moon. Such work will help guide the design of the ILRS and related infrastructure, Chinese space officials said.
And China is not alone in its lunar ambitions. NASA also plans to establish a crewed base near the south pole through its Artemis program. The American space agency aims to send astronauts around the moon next year on its Artemis 2 mission, and then follow it up with a crewed landing on Artemis 3 in 2026.
Some American politicians and government officials, including NASA chief executive Bill Nelson, characterized the current situation as a new “moon race” with China. It’s important for the US to win this race, Nelson and others have said, so they can set precedents for responsible exploration of the moon and beyond.
