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China has successfully landed a probe on the moon. There, the unmanned Chang’e-5 will prepare to collect the first lunar samples collected by the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976. Here’s everything you need to know:
Why did China go to the moon?
Beijing wants to become a space superpower along with the United States and Russia, the only two countries to have so far collected lunar samples.
President Xi Jinping hopes to run a permanent space station called Tiangong (celestial palace) – expected as early as 2022 – and send astronauts to the moon, as part of what he calls the country’s “space dream”. The first prototype, Tiangong-1, was launched in 2011 and completed its mission before China lost control of the aircraft and crashed into the ocean in 2018. A space laboratory called Tiangong-2 was launched in 2016 and made a controlled return in 2019.
As part of China’s space plans, in May it launched a new rocket and spacecraft prototype, called the Long March 5B. China hopes that one day craft like these will take a crew of six to the space station.
The Chang’e-5 mission offers the opportunity to test equipment and procedures before the next Tiangong phase.
What will moon rocks be used for?
The 2 kg of material – dust and debris – that the probe is expected to collect will help scientists learn about the moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface, according to AFP.
Xiao Long, a planetary geologist at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, told Nature that the samples could “rewrite the history of the moon” if they proved that there was still volcanic activity on the lunar surface 1 billion-2 billion years ago. . Previous lunar material suggests this activity stopped about 3.5 billion years ago, according to Nature.
Moon dust is also pretty weird stuff, and understanding it is important for the future of space exploration. If you want to know more, this article on Wired is worth reading, “because moon dust could cloud our lunar ambitions”.
How will the probe collect lunar samples?
The Chang’e-5, named after the Chinese moon goddess, is equipped with a lander and a blocker. These have now separated from the rest of the boat and landed near the 1.3 km high Mons Rümker, a volcanic area in a previously unexplored part of the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), the dark spots that form the head of the rabbit moon that we can see from Earth. This point is thought to be one of the last volcanically active areas on the moon.
Next, the craft will drill two meters into the ground, collect the lunar material, place it in the elevator at the top of the craft, and rise. It will then dock with the rest of the orbiting spacecraft, to which the samples will be transferred before the ascender is thrown overboard.
The spacecraft will then re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and parachute into the Inner Mongolia region of northern China.
How long will this mission take?
Chang’e-5 must complete his mission within one lunar day, the equivalent of 14 days on Earth, so that he doesn’t have to withstand too many extreme temperatures overnight.
What could go wrong?
Clive Neal, a geoscientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, told Nature that the lander could crash, tip over, or that the samples could fall as it moves. The spacecraft has yet to make the return trip to Earth and land smoothly in Inner Mongolia at the end of this month.
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