CHINESE PROBE MAKES HISTORIC MOON LANDING TO COLLECT SAMPLES FROM SURFACE

Wed 02 December 2020:

China successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface late on Tuesday in the first mission to retrieve lunar surface samples in 40 years, said the country’s National Space Administration.

The space agency said the probe had successfully landed on the near side of the moon and sent back images.

The lander-ascender combination of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe successfully landed in the huge volcanic plain Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms,” on the near side of the moon on Tuesday evening, Global Times quoted China’s National Space Administration as announcing.

While landing, the probe’s camera also took a picture of the landing area.

The probe landed on the moon eight days after lifting off from South China’s Hainan Province on Nov. 24.

The development was China’s third successful landing on the Earth’s natural satellite, following the Chang’e-3 probe on Dec. 14, 2013, and a historic first landing on the far side of the moon by the Chang’e-4 probe on Jan. 2, 2019, according to state-run media.

The mission will attempt to collect two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of samples in an area that has yet to be explored on an enormous lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms” and if completed as planned, would make China the third nation to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and Russia.

The lander vehicle is expected to start drilling into the ground with a robotic arm to collect the lunar material in about two days, according to state media.

The samples will then be lifted into orbit and transferred to a return capsule for the return to Earth, where it is expected to land on land in China’s Inner Mongolia region.

“Sample collection on a celestial body normally combines the scoop and the drill, since the materials on the surface are usually too complicated to analyze because of all kinds of space weathering effects, and it is the soil and rocks underground that are most valuable for studying,” Global Times quoted Wang Yanan, mission developer China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, as saying.

The improved drilling system has realized a 70% success rate for the collection of integral samples, he added.

Following the soft landing, the probe’s ascender will take off from the moon’s surface, in another first for China. It will later rendezvous and dock with the orbital module at the lunar orbit some 380,000 kilometers (236,000 miles) away from Earth, which has never been done before. The re-entry capsule will then return the lunar material to the preset landing site in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for further study and research, according to Global Times.

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