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For the first time since the 1970s, China will attempt to bring rock samples from the lunar surface. Beijing hopes the Chang-e 5 unmanned spacecraft, scheduled to launch on Tuesday, will remove the rocks to help scientists better understand the moon’s origin and formation.
The last space mission of its kind, the Soviet Luna 24, took place in 1976. If the Chang-e 5 probe is successful, China will become only the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to carry moon rocks on Earth using their own technologies.
The Chang-e 5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess, is launched into space by the Changcheng 5 rocket (Long March 5).
The probe must collect two kilograms of samples from a hitherto unvisited area of the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms).
During the 1976 mission, only 170 grams of samples were collected. Manned missions of the US Apollo space program cleverly brought 382 kilograms of lunar rocks to Earth.
Experts want to find out from the samples carried by the Chang-e 5 probe how long the Moon has been volcanically active and when its magnetic field has disappeared, essential to protect any form of life from the sun’s rays.
China also plans to obtain samples from the surface of Mars in the next decade. (tasr, bbc)
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