Chinese space mission plans to collect samples from ‘far side of the Moon’
Last week, China achieved a new feat by launching an unmanned spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to recover rocks and soil from the “far side” of the Moon. The Long March-5, the country’s largest rocket, took off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center, on the island of Hainan, carrying the Chang’e-6 probe, weighing more than 8 tons.
The “far side” of the Moon is so called because it is not visible from Earth. This occurs due to a phenomenon called synchronized rotation, in which the Moon takes the same time to rotate around its axis as it does around the Earth, resulting in one side always facing us and the other permanently hidden. Therefore, from Earth’s perspective, this side remains “hidden” or “dark,” although it is still illuminated by the Sun in the same way as the visible side.
This is not the first time that China has impressed the world with its space achievements. In 2018, the Chang’e-4 probe performed the first successful unmanned landing on the “far side” of the Moon, while in 2020, Chang’e-5 marked the return of the first lunar samples in 44 years.
The samples recovered by the Chang’e-6 probe could help scientists to have a deeper analysis of the evolution of the Moon and the solar system itself. The spacecraft is tasked with landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
This innovative mission, named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon and weighing approximately 8,200 kilos, will spend 53 days in space, and intends to collect geological samples.
“Chang’e-6 aims to achieve breakthroughs in the design and control technology of the Moon’s retrograde orbit, intelligent sampling, takeoff and ascent technologies, and automatic sample return on the far side of the Moon,” said Ge Ping, deputy director of the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
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