[ad_1]
It couldn’t have been better for China’s burgeoning space program.
Make no mistake, the landing of China’s Chang’e-5 robotic lunar probe on the surface of Earth’s celestial neighbor has been seen and heard, all over the world.
This wasn’t just another space exploration program – it was an incredible technological achievement. And there will be more to come.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement sent to the Global Times that at 4:53 am on Wednesday, the Chang’e-5 spacecraft’s lander-ascender combination had completed drilling into the lunar surface near Mons Rümker, a mountain in the Ocean of Storms and sealed the specimens he had collected.
The spacecraft’s lander-ascender combination is currently working on collecting samples from the lunar surface, the Chinese space agency said.
The Chang’e-5 uses a combination of a robotic arm and drilling equipment for its automated and robotic sampling from multiple points on the lunar surface and deeper terrain, Global Times reported.
The surface sample collection phase will take approximately two days, after which the ascending segment of the probe, which carries the sealed lunar samples, will take off from the moon to meet and dock with the orbital module.
The re-entry capsule will then transport lunar land and rocks back to Earth, with a planned landing in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of northern China. The entire mission will last about 23 days, Global Times reported.
Chang’e-5, the latest in the increasingly complex Chinese lunar probe mission named after the moon goddess from Chinese mythology, aims to recover around two kilograms of rocks and dust with a state-of-the-art drill and bring them back to Earth for research. scientific studies.
Jiang Shuiqing, chief designer of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft, said the Chinese spacecraft adopts an “automatic robotic” method in the surface operation phase, which is unique compared to previous human lunar sample recovery missions, and has marked a world premiere, Global Times reported.
China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) design team developed highly skilled robotic arms for the ground vehicle. At the end of the robotic arms there are two types of samplers: one can excavate and the other is capable of drilling up to 2 meters.
“Collecting samples on a celestial body normally combines the shovel and the drill, as the materials on the surface are usually too complicated to analyze due to all kinds of effects of space weather, and it is the soil and underground rocks that they are more valuable to the study, “Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times.
Scientists believe the landing site contains rocks and soil that are approximately 1.2 billion years old. It has never been visited by either a probe or a human, and scientists believe it will fill an important gap in their understanding of the moon’s volcanic activities.
If successful, China will become the first country to bring lunar materials back to Earth since 1976.
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union successfully completed three robotic champion return missions that recovered a total of 330 grams of lunar soil. The Chang’e-5 plans to bring back 2 kilograms in a single mission.
The weight gap reflects how far the ability to retrieve lunar samples has advanced in recent decades, Pang Zhihao said.
He explained that in the 1970s, the missions of the Soviet Union adopted a direct plan of ascent and return from the lunar surface, which required the elevator to use large amounts of fuel to carry the enormous load on the return capsule, with the the result was that the weight of the sample was very low.
The Chang’e-5, however, is expected to rendezvous and dock with the orbital module in the lunar orbit, greatly reducing the amount of fuel required for the elevator and leaving room for more samples.
“The samples must be sealed in case of contamination on the return trip to earth,” Luan Enjie, the commander-in-chief of China’s first lunar mission, told CCTV. “The lunar environment is very different from Earth, so the samples have to be kept in a very clean container,” he added.
As mentioned, the international community closely followed the event.
“For the Chinese space program, this event is undoubtedly historic,” Roscosmos Deputy Director General Sergei Savelyev said in a statement after congratulating his Chinese colleagues.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has also extended a congratulatory message to the CNSA on its achievement.
Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate of the US Space Agency NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen, wrote shortly after the landing event: “Congratulations to China on the successful landing of Chang’e 5.”
“This is not an easy task. When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope that everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international scientific community,” he wrote.
According to Space.com, Chang’e 5 isn’t the only champion returning game in town.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission is scheduled to deliver pieces of the Ryugu asteroid to Earth on December 5, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected samples of the Bennu space rock in late October.
Champions Bennu are expected to return home in September 2023.
Source link
