Chang'e 6 mission and China's ambitions on the Moon

China is returning to the mysterious far side of the Moon and bringing back some samples from the Moon. The Chang'e 6 (Chang'e 6) mission was launched on May 3, on a Long March rocket from the launch pad at Wenchang Launch Site, Hainan province, southern China.

If all goes according to plan, Chang'e 6 (or Chang'e 6) will reach the far side of the Moon, take some samples and return to Earth - something that has never been done before.

The hidden face of the Moon

The Moon is tidally related to the Earth, completing one rotation in the same amount of time it takes to orbit the Earth. This means that observers on Earth only see one side of the Moon - what we call the near side.

The Chang'e 6 (Chang'e 6) mission was launched to the Moon. (Photo: NBC News).

A rover or lander mission to the far side faces communications challenges, requiring the lunar orbiter to relay information to and from mission control on Earth. China launched one such relay satellite, called Queqiao, before Chang'e 4 and sent another satellite, Queqiao 2, toward lunar orbit this past March in preparation for Chang'e 6 and subsequent surface missions.

Scientists emphasize that the far side of the Moon is very different from the near side. For example, while vast basalt plains called maria cover about a third of the Moon's familiar surface, these dark "seas" of volcanic rock cover only 1% of the surface of the far side of the Moon. moon. moon.

Complex task

The Chang'e 6 mission consists of four components : the Lunar Orbiter, the lander, the rover, and the Earth return module.

If all goes according to plan, the lander (with the levitation vehicle attached) will touch down inside Apollo Crater, part of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, one of the largest impact craters in the world. Largest impact in the solar system. The SPA basin is about 2,500 km wide, and its old, ancient rocks contain clues about the Moon's early history and evolution.

The non-profit Planetary Society writes in its description of the Chang'e 6 mission: 'This region has long been considered fundamental to understanding how and when giant objects strike the Moon and Earth. land billions of years ago, as well as why the far side of the Moon is different from the near side'.

The Chang'e 6 lander will collect 2kg of lunar soil and rock , some scraped from the surface and some drilled from up to 2 meters below the Moon's surface.

These samples will be transferred to the reentry module, located on the orbiter. The orbiter will then return to Earth, releasing the return module for a trip through Earth's atmosphere. This entire journey, from launch to bringing the samples back to Earth, is expected to take 53 days.

The success of Chang'e 5 made China the third country to complete a mission to bring samples to the Moon, after the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the lunar material brought back to Earth was done by Apollo astronauts, who brought back 382 kg of material to Earth between 1969 and 1972.

Race to the Moon?

Chang'e 6 is part of an ambitious lunar mission that China hopes will land a crew on the Moon, Earth's nearest neighbor, by 2030.

In the 2030s, China plans to build a manned outpost near the Moon's south pole called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), with help from Russia and international partners other.

China has begun testing several technologies that could help lay the foundations for ILRS. For example, in March, the Queqiao 2 relay satellite was launched along with two other spacecraft named Tiandu 1 and Tiandu 2, which are conducting communication and navigation experiments near the Moon. Chinese space officials say such work will help guide the design of ILRS and related infrastructure.

Not only China, NASA also plans to establish a crew base near the south pole through the Artemis program. The US space agency aims to fly astronauts around the Moon next year in the Artemis 2 mission, then follow that up with a crewed landing on Artemis 3 in 2026.