China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe set off from the far side of the moon on Tuesday, moving a step closer to completing an ambitious mission that underscores the country’s rise as a space superpower.
In a symbolic moment before liftoff, China was also reported to have become the first country to display its national flag on the far side of the moon, which is not permanently facing Earth.
The probe, carrying the first lunar rocks ever collected from the far side of the moon, took off after successful sample collection in the previous two days and entered lunar orbit early Tuesday, Beijing time, according to a statement from the China National Space Administration. CNSA).
The journey back to Earth is estimated to take about three weeks, with landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region expected around June 25.
Successful return of samples would give China an advantage in reaping the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration, an increasingly competitive field that is contributing to what NASA chief Bill Nelson has called a new “space race.”
This is the second time China has collected samples from the moon, after Chang’e-5 returned near-side rocks in 2020.
Earlier this year, Nelson appeared to acknowledge that China’s pace and concerns about its intentions were increasing America’s urgency to return to the Moon decades after the Apollo crewed missions.
A photo published by CNSA on Tuesday and trending on China’s X-like Weibo platform shows the punctured surface in a shape resembling the Chinese character “zhong” or the English character “middle” (the first character in the Chinese word “China”).
The Chang’e-6 probe withstood “high temperature testing” and collected samples by drilling into the Moon’s surface and collecting soil and rocks with a mechanical arm, the CNSA said.
According to an animation released by CNSA, Chang’e-6 extended its robotic arm to raise the Chinese flag after collecting the samples.
The flag, made of volcanic rock basalt, was designed to resist corrosion and extreme temperatures on the far side of the moon, with future lunar missions in mind, a Chang’e-6 engineer told state broadcaster CCTV.
Engineer Zhou Changyi said the rock was “crushed, melted and formed into filaments about one-third the diameter of a human hair, then spun into thread and woven into fabric.”
“The lunar surface is rich in basalt,” Zhou added. “Since we will build a lunar base in the future, we will most likely have to turn basalt into fiber and use it as a building material.”
historical mission
Chang’e-6 successfully touched down Sunday morning in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon’s oldest impact basin, which formed about 4 billion years ago. This is the second time a mission has successfully reached the far side of the moon, after China first accomplished this historic feat with the Chang’e-4 probe in 2019.
If all goes as planned, the mission, which begins on May 3 and is expected to last 53 days, could be a major milestone on China’s path to becoming a dominant space power.
The country’s plans include sending astronauts to the moon by 2030 and building a research base at the south pole, which is believed to contain water ice.
Experts say samples collected by the Chang’e-6 lander could provide important clues about the origin and evolution of the moon, Earth and solar system; At the same time, the mission itself provides important data and technical applications to advance China’s lunar ambitions.
“The enigmatic far side of the Moon is so different from the near side of the Moon in so many ways that without returned samples, lunar scientists cannot fully understand the Moon as an entire planetary body,” said James Head, professor emeritus at Brown University. said. collaborated with the Chinese scientists who led the mission. “The samples returned from Chang’e 6 will allow major advances to be made in solving these problems.”
The far side of the moon is outside normal communications range, which means Chang’e-6 must also rely on Queqiao-2, a satellite launched into lunar orbit in March.
China plans to launch two more missions in the Chang-e series as it approaches its goal of sending astronauts to the moon in 2030.
Space race
Many countries are expanding their lunar programs, focusing on securing access to resources and further deep space exploration.
Last year, India landed a spacecraft on the moon for the first time, while Russia’s first moon landing mission in decades ended in failure when its Luna 25 probe crashed into the moon’s surface.
In January, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, but the Moon Sniper lander faced power problems due to the wrong landing angle. The following month, IM-1, a NASA-funded mission designed by private Texas-based firm Intuitive Machines, touched down near the moon’s south pole.
The landing, the first by a U.S.-made spacecraft in more than five decades, is among several planned commercial missions aimed at exploring the lunar surface before NASA attempts to send U.S. astronauts back there as soon as 2026 and build the scientific base camp.
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