After gathering samples that researchers believe may assist address important queries regarding the early formation of the solar system, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe is expected to take off on its historic voyage back to Earth from the moon’s far side.
Launched from the southern Chinese island state of Hainan on May 3, Chang’e-6 bears the name of the legendary Chinese moon goddess.
On the side of the moon that is always facing away from Earth, the fully robotic probe touched down on Sunday in an area of the massive impact crater known as the South-Pole Aitken Basin. This spot has never been visited before.
Resuming Lunar Exploration: A Historical Overview of Lunar Material Retrieval
After a 44-year hiatus, worldwide lunar material retrieval activities were resumed in December 2020 when samples from the moon’s near side were gathered by China’s previous Chang’e mission.
Mare Crisium, often known as the “Sea of Crises,” is located on the near side of the moon. 170.1 grams (6 ounces) of samples were taken there by the unmanned Luna 24 mission, which was launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976.
Six crewed Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 retrieved 2,200 samples totaling 382 kilogrammes from the side of the moon facing Earth.
The South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon may have resulted from an era of intense bombardment of the solar system, Earth, and moon, according to James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency’s lunar scientific office, who stated that samples taken from the near side of the moon by the Apollo missions suggested as much.
Chang’e-6 Mission: Pioneering Lunar Far Side Sample Retrieval
“This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not,” he stated.
“To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that’s going to be done with samples from the lunar far side from the South-Pole Aitken Basin.”
Chang’e-6 aimed to be the first probe to return with samples of this kind from the moon’s far side, and after landing it had a 14-hour window to drill, extract, and seal 2 kg of material. In contrast, Chang’e-5 had a 21-hour window in 2020.
“Once it gets dark, once the sun goes over the horizon, the mission has to end, so there is a limited time window between landing, getting those samples, and getting off the surface again, so it’s quite an exciting mission because it has to be done quickly,” Carpenter explained.
Even though China claimed to have increased the efficiency of its drilling and excavating equipment in comparison to 2020, the mission may still run into problems during the sample stage.
Chang’e-6 Mission’s Lunar Sample Retrieval and Global Significance
After hitting impassable strata beneath the surface, the drill was only able to cut a hole 1 meter (3.28 feet) deep, instead of the intended 2 meters, and Chang’e-5 returned 1.73 kg of lunar samples instead of the 2 kg.
After being transported and sealed on a rocket booster atop the lander, the Chang’e-6 samples will be transferred and sent back into space by the lander, which will then dock with another spacecraft in lunar orbit. Around June 25, there is expected to be a landing in Inner Mongolia, China.
Payloads from research institutes in Italy, France, and Pakistan, along with the European Space Agency, will gather data on space and lunar-related topics throughout the probe’s voyage. This will underscore the increasing global significance of China’s space program, which is in competition with the US to establish a lunar outpost within the next ten years.
Carpenter expressed his expectation that the “extremely strong” cooperation between Chinese and European scientists in analyzing the lunar samples returned by Chang’e-5 would continue with Chang’e-6.
