Launch preparations are accelerating for the robotic Chang’e 6 mission, which will send China’s next spacecraft to the moon.
The spacecraft is currently aboard the Long March 5 rocket at its launch site in Wenchang, China’s Hainan province. Chang’e 6 is reportedly scheduled to launch on Friday, May 3 at 03:50 UTC (0759 GMT; 15:50 Beijing time).
The 8.2 metric ton Chang’e 6 is targeted to land in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon. The mission consists of four components: an orbiter, a lander, an ascent module, and a reentry module.
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first time try
Chang’e 6 will be the first attempt to return dust and rocks from the far side of the Moon. If all goes as planned, these samples will be placed in ascent to be transported from the surface to lunar orbit and then transferred to a reentry module that carries the collectibles to Earth.
The United States, the former Soviet Union, and China have returned lunar samples to Earth. China became the last country to do this with the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020. But all this material was collected on the near side, which is the part of the moon that always faces Earth.
China conducted the first soft landing on the far side of the moon with the Chang’e 4 lander mission in early January 2019.
According to Xingguo Zeng of the National Astronomical Observatories Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Chang’e 6 will provide answers to questions about the Moon’s near-side-far edge dilemmas and provide new insights into both early collisions and early Moon impacts. was designed to provide. History of the solar system and geological evolution of the moon.
In an article by Xingguo recently published in Nature, it was stated that Chang’e 6 will land in the southern part of the Apollo basin, providing access to various SPA materials for this purpose.
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Design and control
“Chang’e 6 aims to break new ground in the design and control technology of the lunar retrograde orbit, intelligent sampling, takeoff and ascent technologies, and automatic sample return on the far side of the moon,” said Deputy General Manager Ge Ping. China National Space Administration Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center told China Central Television (CCTV).
“Currently, the Long March 5 carrier rocket and the Chang’e 6 probe are in good condition,” Ge added. “All preparations for the launch are proceeding in an orderly manner, following normal operating procedures.”
Liao Guorui, an engineer at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, told CCTV:
“Currently, the launch site has provided normal tests of Chang’e 6 and Long March-5 Y8 carrier rockets. Our Hainan launch site has high temperatures, high humidity and high salt fog. We have also prepared some anti-typhoon plans to adapt to the weather conditions in Hainan .”
Details of the launch window were elucidated by Zhu Haiyang, staff member of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
“The signature feature of the Chang-e 6 mission is that it has extra high requirements for the launch interval, especially due to the lunar orbit. In order to achieve optimum energy, it has a high requirement for the launch time of the rocket and delivery time to the Lunar Transfer Orbit [LTO]”We have carried out some verifications for the ‘narrow window and multi-orbit’ technology,” Zhu told CCTV.
transfer point
For the launch of Chang’e 6, the rocket was designed for 10 lunar orbits. Chang’e 6 needs to enter LTO at 125 miles (200 kilometers) perigee (closest point of approach) and 255,000 miles (410,000 km) apogee (furthest point), and the orbit entry accuracy requirement is also extremely high. high.
“As for the rocket, we mainly need to send it to the LTO transfer point,” Zhu added. “In terms of process coordination before launch at the launch site, coordination and exercises around narrow-window multi-orbit technology were also conducted. With higher accuracy in orbit insertion, Chang’e-6 has less time to require attitude adjustment, including orientation, orbital elevation, and orbital change.” The driving force will be exhausted.”
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Bucket and drill
According to noted lunar scientist James Head at Brown University, the Chang’e 6 mission is very similar to Chang’e 5 in terms of spacecraft and operational strategy: It will scoop and drill samples of perhaps up to 4.4 pounds in total. (2 kilograms).
The recently launched Queqiao 2 far-side communications satellite is in lunar orbit, has been tested, and is fully functional to support not only the Chang’e 6 mission but also the follow-up Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 robotic explorations. Head said he supports the establishment of a lunar base called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).