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China has made spaceflight history once again.
The country’s Chang’e 6 robotic mission returned material from the moon’s mysterious far side to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) – something that has never been done before.
The historic moment occurred Tuesday at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time), when the Chang’e 6 capsule returned. Real estate In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.
Chang’e 6 consists of four modules: a lunar lander, a return capsule, an orbiter, and an ascent vehicle (a small rocket carried by the lander).
Related: China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft finds long-awaited particles on the far side of the moon
This device was launched on May 3 and reached lunar orbit five days later. On June 1, the lander touched down inside Apollo Crater, which lies within the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA), a 1,600-mile-wide (2,500 km) impact site on the far side of the Moon.
The lander collected about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of lunar material using a scoop and drill. This precious cargo was launched aboard Ascender on June 3 and rendezvoused with the mission’s orbiter a few days later.
The orbiter – which carries the samples inside the return capsule – began heading towards Earth on or around June 21. According to NASA. (China has provided some official updates about Chang’e 6’s timeline and key milestones.) The sample’s long flight ended early Tuesday with the landing of the return capsule.
Chang’e 6 is not the first successful sample return mission from the Moon; The Soviet Union, the United States, and China (with the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020) brought back materials from Earth’s closest neighbors. But those previous efforts all collected dirt and rocks on the near side of the moon, the side that always faces Earth.
The far side, which is very different from the near one, is more difficult to explore. Since the far side is far from Earth, a satellite is needed to communicate with spacecraft operating there. (China has launched two such satellites so far.) Thus, the far side has been little studied, so scientists are excited to take a closer look at the Chang’e 6 samples.
This material could help answer some puzzling questions about the early history of the solar system. For example, the SPA basin formed 4.26 billion years ago, a few hundred million years after most lunar craters, which were blasted by asteroids and comets during a violent extension known as late heavy bombardment.
“Did the SPA form as part of the late heavy bombardment? Or was it a separate event? By obtaining accurate dates for the basin and the craters above it, we will be able to better understand the Moon’s history,” the nonprofit Planetary Society wrote. in Chang’e mission description 6.
“This also has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth,” the Planetary Society added. “Asteroids likely carried water and organic materials to Earth during Late Heavy Bombardment. Understanding the timing and circumstances of this event is crucial to unraveling our origin story.”
Chang’e 6 was China’s second mission to the far side of the Moon. In January 2019, Chang’e 4 landed a rover there called Yutu 2, which is still active today. No other country has soft-landed any instrument on the far side of the Moon.
China’s lunar plans don’t end with Chang’e 6. The country plans to launch Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 in 2026 and 2028, respectively. The latest mission will help test the technologies needed to create a lunar base, which China aims to build near the water- and ice-rich Antarctica in the 2030s.
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