China On The Moon

China started bringing back the world’s first lunar samples from the far side of the moon on Tuesday as part of the Chang’e-6 mission, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The ascender of the Chang’e-6 spacecraft took off at 7:48 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the moon’s surface to dock with the orbiter-returner combo and will eventually bring the samples back to Earth. The 3000N engine operated for about six minutes and successfully sent the ascender into the designated lunar orbit.
The Chang’e-6 lunar probe was launched on May 3. Its lander-ascender combo landed on the moon on June 2. The probe spent 48 hours and completed intelligent rapid sampling in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon and then encapsulated the samples into storage devices carried by the ascender according to plan.
China obtained samples from the near side of the moon during the Chang’e-5 mission in 2020. Although the Chang’e-6 probe builds on the success of China’s previous lunar sample return mission, it still faces some big challenges.
Deng Xiangjin with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said it has been an “extremely difficult, extremely honorable and extremely challenging mission.”
After landing, the Chang’e-6 probe worked on the southern latitude of the moon’s South Pole, on the far side of the moon. Deng said the team hopes it can stay in the most ideal state.
He said in order to make its lighting, temperature and other environmental conditions as consistent as possible with the Chang’e-5 probe, the Chang’e-6 probe adopted a new orbit called the retrograde orbit.
“In this way, our probe will maintain similar working conditions and environment, whether on the southern or northern latitudes; its working condition would be good,” he told CGTN.
The Chang’e-6 probe works on the far side of the moon, which is always invisible from Earth. So, the probe is invisible to Earth during its entire lunar surface working process. To ensure its normal operation, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite transmitted the signals from the Chang’e-6 probe to Earth.
Even with the relay satellite, during the 48 hours that the probe stayed on the lunar surface, there were some hours when it was invisible.
“This requires our entire lunar surface work to be significantly more efficient. For example, we now have the rapid sampling and packaging technology,” Deng said.
“On the far side of the moon, the landing position of the Chang’e-6 probe cannot be measured by the ground stations on Earth, so it must identify the location on its own. The same problem arises when it ascends on the far side of the moon, and it also needs to take off from the moon autonomously,” he added.