[ad_1]
If the Chang’e-5 mission is successful, China will become a third country after the United States and Russia to collect lunar material.
China successfully landed a spacecraft on the lunar surface late Tuesday evening on the first mission to recover lunar surface samples in 40 years, the country’s National Space Administration said.
The space agency said the spacecraft successfully landed on the closest side of the moon and sent images.
China launched its Chang’e-5 probe which is not manned by the southern province of Hainan on November 24. The mission, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, aims to collect lunar material to help scientists learn more about the moon’s origins and the solar system more generally.
Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted that the landing was a “historic step”, adding that it would also benefit “international cooperation and the peaceful use of space”.
The mission will attempt to collect two kilograms (4.4 lbs) of samples in an area that has yet to be explored on a huge lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms” and, if completed as planned, would make the China is the third nation to have recovered lunar samples after the United States and Russia.
# Change5 just landed on the #Moon. A historic step for the Chinese universe probe. And also for international cooperation and the peaceful use of space. #Moon landing pic.twitter.com/5A2vOruKGl
– Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) 2 December 2020
We have a * new * lunar lander!
The Chinese # Change5 The lander landed at 43.1 ° N, 51.8 ° W at 15:11 UTC today, December 1.
Here is a small 🧵 of some maps I made of the landing site region, with the main features labeled, starting at the scale of 1: 300,000 (~ 160 km field of view): pic.twitter.com/hsDuEvSAuG
– Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) December 1, 2020
According to state media, the ground vehicle will begin drilling through the ground with a robotic arm to collect lunar material in about two days.
The samples will then be taken into orbit and transferred to a return capsule for return to Earth, where it is expected to land on the mainland in China’s Inner Mongolia region.
If the mission is successful, it will be the first time scientists have secured lunar rock samples since Russia (hence the Soviet Union) reported material in the 1970s.
China sent its first astronaut to space in 2003 and made its first moon landing 10 years later. In January last year, the Chang’e-4 probe landed on the opposite side of the moon, the first spacecraft from any nation to do so, and in July it launched a spacecraft to Mars to search for water.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
