China's lunar probe could return with answer to origins of solar system
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[June 03, 2024]
By Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe looks set to begin its
historic journey back to Earth from the moon's far side after collecting
samples that scientists expect will help answer key questions about the
early evolution of the solar system.
Chang'e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched
on May 3 from the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.
The fully robotic probe landed on Sunday in a previously unexplored
location in a gigantic impact crater called the South-Pole Aitken Basin,
on the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.
China's previous Chang'e mission collected samples from the moon's near
side in December 2020, restarting global lunar material retrieval
efforts after a gap of 44 years.
The uncrewed Luna 24 mission launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976
collected 170.1 grams (6 ounces) of samples from Mare Crisium, or "Sea
of Crises", on the near side of the moon.
Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions, all crewed, collected 2,200
samples weighing a total of 382 kilograms, also from the side of the
moon facing Earth.
James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency's lunar science
office, said the samples collected by the Apollo missions from the
moon's near side suggested the South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side
was caused by an epoch of extremely heavy bombardment of the solar
system, Earth and moon.
"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
said.
"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."
SMALL WINDOW
After landing, Chang'e-6 had a 14-hour window to drill, excavate, and
seal 2 kg of material, with the goal of being the first probe to bring
back such samples from the moon's far side. This compares to the 21-hour
window Chang'e-5 had in 2020.
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![](../images/060324PIX/news_c6.jpg)
The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket
combination sit atop the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch
Site in Hainan province, China May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Baptista/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jun/03/images/ads/current/bennet_lda_010722.png)
"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 said.
While China said it had improved the efficiency of its digging and
drilling machines compared with 2020, the mission could still
encounter snags at the sampling phase.
Chang'e-5 returned 1.73 kg of lunar samples, rather than the planned
2 kg, as the drill was only able to create a hole 1 meter (3.28
feet) deep, rather than 2 meters, after encountering impenetrable
layers beneath the surface.
The Chang'e-6 samples will be transferred and sealed on a rocket
booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, dock
with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and transfer the samples.
A landing in China's Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25.
Throughout the probe's journey, payloads from Italian, French, and
Pakistani research institutes, as well as the European Space Agency,
will collect data on questions pertaining to space and the moon,
highlighting the growing international weight of China's space
program, which is competing with the United States to build a lunar
outpost in the next decade.
Carpenter said there was "extremely strong" collaboration between
European and Chinese scientists in analyzing the lunar samples
brought back by Chang'e-5, and he hoped this would be repeated for
Chang'e-6.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo.
Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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