BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft has landed on the far side of the moon and collected rocks, as the space race with the United States intensifies.
The lander touched down in a huge crater known as the Antarctic-Aitken Basin on Sunday morning Beijing time, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The mission is the sixth in the Chang’e Moon Exploration program, named after the Chinese moon goddess. It is the second mission designed to bring back samples. Chang’e 5We did that in 2020 from the near side.
The lunar program is part of growing competition with the United States and others. Japan India and China are both engaged in space exploration. China has launched its own space station into orbit and regularly Send a crew There.
The goal of the emerging world powers Sending a Man to the Moon It will be second only to the United States in planning to land astronauts on the moon by 2030. The United States plans to land astronauts on the moon again for the first time in more than 50 years, but NASA Target date postponed It was extended until 2026 earlier this year.
In China’s current mission, the lander will use its mechanical arm and drill to collect up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of surface and subsurface material and send it back in a capsule currently orbiting the moon.
An elevator atop the lander will deliver the samples in a metal vacuum chamber back to the orbiter, which will then transfer them to a re-entry capsule for a return to Earth around June 25 in the desert of China’s Inner Mongolia region.
Missions to the far side of the moon are more difficult because the moon faces away from Earth, so a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.
