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HELSINKI – China has launched a Long March 5 heavy-duty missile in preparation for launching the complex return mission of the Chang’e-5 lunar champion early next week.
The long March 5 heavy lift of around 878 tons was vertically moved from an assembly building to its launch area in late Eastern Monday in a process that took around two hours.
The launch of the 8.2-ton Chang’e-5 spacecraft from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center is scheduled for November 24 local time. So far, state media reports have only confirmed that the launch will take place in late November.
A successful mission would make China only the third country to provide lunar samples to Earth, after the US Apollo manned program and Soviet robotic Moon missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
Preparations for the launch in Wenchang have been ongoing since then mid September. The fourth and most recent Long March 5 mission has been successfully launched launched the Tianwen-1 Mars spaceship in July.
The failure of the second long March 5 launch in July 2017 meant a three-year delay for Chang’e-5, having been scheduled for launch later this year.
Mission landing place, time frame
The The Chang’e-5 landing will target a site near Mons Rümker, a volcanic formation located in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the western edge of the closest side of the moon. Contains young geological units like around. 1.21 billion years. By comparison, the samples brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts are between 3.1 and 4.4 billion years old.
The sunrise on Mons Rümker will take place on November 27, before the landing attempt. The mission seeks to collect around 2 kilograms of samples by both drilling to a depth of two meters and collecting surface material.
Unlike the ongoing, multi-day Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4, equipped with radioisotope heating units to survive the extreme cold of the lunar night, the landing and sampling of the Chang’e-5 must take place at the interior of a single, about 14 -During Earth’s lunar day.
After sampling, a complex ascent, an automatic rendezvous of the lunar orbit, and the transfer of materials involving separate ascent and service modules will take place. The service module will then return to Earth followed by a high-speed reentry into Earth’s atmosphere by a return capsule.
The mission is expected to last approximately 23 days from launch until landing in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, around December 16-17. The samples will then be transferred to facilities specially developed for the manipulation, analysis and storage of the lunar material.
Big challenges
Chang’e-5 is the third phase of the Chinese lunar exploration project formulated in the early 2000s. The Chang’e-1 and 2 orbiters and subsequent Chang’e-3 and 4 landing and exploration missions have marked the first two stages.
Yu Dengyun, deputy chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, told state media in September that the mission is far more challenging than previous missions.
New challenges include sampling and subsequent stages. “Gravity on the Moon is about one sixth different from that on Earth. And in such a circumstance, how to pack the samples is a key mission issue. We have never tried it before, “Yu said.
“We have usually completed the launch of the rocket to Earth at a fixed point. We have a proven technique in this field. But we still have difficulties in taking off the vehicle uphill, which is supposed to happen on the lander… we have never tried it before, ”Yu said.
Chang’e-6 is a returning starship sample designed at the same time as Chang’e-5 to provide backup in case of failure. The latter’s success, however, would see Chang’e-6 repurposed for a landing at the lunar south pole around 2023.
China has stated that it will then proceed into an extended phase of lunar exploration involving Chang’e-7 and additional lunar landing missions. The goal will be to establish ainternational lunar research station‘between the mid to late 1920s as a precursor to manned landings.
Sample return technology and expertise developed through Chang’e-5 are also to be used for asteroid sample return missions and near-Earth Mars samples over the decade. The profile complexity of the Chang’e-5 mission is considered by observers to correlate with future manned lunar landing ambitions.
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