China has achieved another significant milestone in space exploration with the successful landing of its Chang'e-6 spacecraft on the far side of the moon. This lunar success marks the second time China has touched down on this mysterious and unexplored region of our natural satellite. Let's delve into the details of this historic mission.
The Long March 5 with Chang’e 6 hurtling through the atmosphere. (Image credit: CNSA).
The Landing
On June 2, 2024, at 6:23 a.m. Beijing Time, the robotic Chang'e-6 mission gently touched down inside Apollo Crater, situated within the vast South Pole-Aitken basin. This achievement follows the earlier Chang'e-4 mission, which deployed a lander-rover combo on the moon's far side in January 2019. Notably, no other country has accomplished this feat even once.
Chang'e-6 aims to go beyond mere landings. If all goes according to plan, it will scoop up soil and rock samples from the far side of the moon and bring them back to Earth. The Chang'e landing module - named after a Chinese moon goddess - will use a mechanical arm and drill to gather up to 2kg (4.4lb) of surface and underground material for about two days. An ascender on top of the lander will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module orbiting the moon. The container will then be transferred to a re-entry capsule, which is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China's Inner Mongolia region around 25 June.
It is hoped the mission will provide China with a record of the moon's 4.5 billion-year history and provide new clues on the formation of the solar system. These samples will provide researchers with their first-ever up-close examination of material from this enigmatic part of the lunar surface. Importantly, the Chang'e-6 mission represents the first human sampling and return mission from the far side of the moon, although it is a robotic endeavour, not crewed.
The Chang'e-6 spacecraft stack showing, for the first time, an apparent lunar rover attached to the mission lander. Credit: CAST
Challenges and Innovations
sampling the moon's far side presents unique challenges. Unlike the near side, which always faces Earth, the far side remains perpetually hidden from our view due to Moon being tidally locked. Consequently, communication with robots operating there requires special relay orbiters. China's newest moon relay satellite, Queqiao-2, played a crucial role in aiding Chang'e-6's landing.
The Road Ahead
Chang'e-6 spent several weeks scrutinizing its planned landing site before successfully touching down. Its orbiter, equipped with an Earth re-entry module, continues to circle the moon. The mission's ultimate goal is to unravel lunar mysteries by analysing samples from the oldest lunar basin.
Missions to the moon are part of a growing competition in space exploration between China, the US and others, including Japan and India. After India discovered there might be ice in the moon's South Pole craters in 2008 scientists have wanted to know if there is water up there, which would make missions to Mars more feasible.
China's ambitious lunar exploration program doesn't stop here. The country aims to send a crewed mission to the moon by 2030 and even plans to establish a lunar base. Meanwhile, the United States is also gearing up for its Artemis 3 mission, which aims to put astronauts back on the moon by 2026.
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