China has successfully landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The spacecraft is called Chang’e-6 and its mission is to collect lunar soil samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon.
Chang’e-6 is designed to drill up to 7 feet below the lunar surface and collect around 4 pounds of samples. It has a lander and ascender module.
After completing sample collection, the ascender module will take off from the lunar surface and dock with an orbiter-returner vehicle. The lunar samples will then be transferred to the returner for the return journey to Earth.
The samples are expected to land in Inner Mongolia, China in a return capsule sometime within the next few months. This will allow scientists to study the samples to learn more about the moon’s composition and history.
The mission demonstrates China’s advancing capabilities in lunar exploration and represents the latest development in the global space race to explore and study the moon. The US has not landed on the moon since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.
Chang’e-6 builds on the success of China’s previous Chang’e-5 mission, which returned the first lunar samples to Earth in decades in 2020. Its success marks another step forward for China’s ambitious lunar program.
Source: Fox Weather
