China is once again heading to the mysterious far side of the moon — and this time, it’s bringing back a souvenir.
The robotic Chang’e 6 mission will take place today (May 3) at 5:27 a.m. EDT (9:27 GMT, 5:27 p.m. Beijing time) by Long March 5 from its pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern China. It was launched on a rocket. Hainan province.
If all goes according to plan, Chang’e 6 will land on the far side of the moon, scoop up samples and take them back to Earth in a rocket, something that has never been done before. In fact, the only mission to have made a soft landing on the far side of the moon is his Chang’e 4, which crashed the lander and rover duo in January 2019.
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hidden face of the moon
The moon is tidally locked to the Earth, making one rotation in the same amount of time it takes to orbit the Earth. This means that observers on Earth only see one side of the moon, the side we call the near side.
In addition to being more familiar than the back side, the back side is also easier for us to explore. This explains why every surface mission before Chang’e 4 (including NASA’s manned Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s) targeted it. face.
Missions of rovers and landers to the other side of the Earth face communications challenges, with lunar-orbiting satellites having to relay messages to and from mission control on Earth. China launched just such a relay satellite, Queqiao, ahead of Chang’e 4, and in March of this year, it placed another satellite, Queqiao 2, into lunar orbit in preparation for Chang’e 6 and subsequent ground missions. I sent it towards him.
Beyond curiosity and the spirit of exploration, there are compelling reasons to study the underside up close, scientists stress. It is very different from the front side. For example, while wide basalt plains known as maria cover about a third of the moon’s well-known face, these dark “seas” of volcanic rocks make up just 1% of the farside surface. Masu.
Researchers do not know what causes these differences, and hope that observing the samples up close from behind will help clarify the issue.
Related: The Moon: Everything you need to know about our Earth companion
complex mission
Chang’e 6 consists of four elements: a lunar orbiter, a lander, an ascent vehicle, and an Earth reentry module.
If all goes to plan, the lander (with an attached ascender) will land inside Apollo Crater, part of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system. Become. The SPA basin is about 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) wide, and its ancient, crumbling rocks contain clues about the Moon’s early history and evolution.
“This region is a keystone in our understanding of when and how massive objects collided with the Moon and Earth billions of years ago, and why the far and near sides of the Moon are so different. has been considered for a long time,” the nonprofit Planetary Society wrote. In the explanation of the Chang’e 6 mission.
The Chang’e 6 lander collected 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar soil and rock, some of which was scraped from the surface and some of which was drilled 6.5 feet (2 meters) underground. The material will then launch aboard the ascender and rendezvous with the lunar orbiter.
The sample will be transferred to the reentry module aboard the orbiter. The orbiter will then return to Earth and release its reentry module for an intense journey through Earth’s atmosphere. The entire journey, from today’s launch until the samples reach Earth, is expected to take 53 days.
The mission’s architecture is similar to the Chang’e 5 mission, China’s first-ever lunar sample return mission, which delivered material to Earth from the other side of the world in December 2020. Back to Chang’e 5.
With the success of Chang’e 5, China became the third country to complete a lunar sample return mission, after the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the lunar material brought to Earth was done by the Apollo astronauts, who brought back 842 pounds (382 kg) of material between 1969 and 1972.
New moon race?
Chang’e 6 is part of a coordinated and ambitious lunar exploration program that China hopes will lead to a manned landing on Earth’s closest neighbor by 2030.
And an astronaut’s first mission won’t be a one-off. China plans to build a manned outpost called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) near the moon’s south pole in the 2030s with support from Russia and other international partners.
China has already begun testing some of the technologies that could help lay the foundations for ILRS. For example, in March, the relay satellite Queqiao 2 was launched along with two other spacecraft, Tiandu 1 and Tiandu 2, which are conducting communications and navigation experiments near the moon. Chinese space officials said such research would guide the design of the ILRS and related infrastructure.
And China isn’t the only country with moon ambitions. NASA also plans to establish a manned base near Antarctica through its Artemis program. The U.S. space agency aims to fly astronauts around the moon with the Artemis 2 mission next year, followed by a manned landing on Artemis 3 in 2026.
Some American politicians and government officials, including NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, have characterized the current situation as a new “moon race” with China. Nelson and others said it was important for the U.S. to win this competition so it could set a precedent for responsible exploration of the moon and beyond.
