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China has launched a spaceship – Chang’e 5 – with the mission of taking samples from the lunar surface.
If the mission of the Chang’e 5 probe is successful, China will become the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union in the 1970s (last century), to be able to collect samples of lunar material, which confirms the Chinese ambition regarding the conquest of space.
The probe was launched on Monday around 8:30 pm (Lisbon time) from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan in southern China.
The probe was carried by the Long March-5 (Long March-5), the largest transport rocket in China.
The Chang’e-5 mission, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess, will seek to collect material from the lunar surface to help the scientific community understand more about the moon’s origin and formation.
With this mission, China intends to test its ability to collect samples from space before embarking on more complex missions.
China has already launched a spaceship to Mars
Chinese space exploration has not yet started, in 2019 the Chang’e 4 probe made its first landing on the other side of the moon. Furthermore, in July 2020 it sent a spacecraft (robotic probe) to Mars in order to search for water on the red planet.
It is worth mentioning that until then only the United States and Russia had sent missions to explore Mars.
However, China’s ambition does not stop there. One of the big space goals of Chinese scientists and authorities is to have a permanently manned space station in service by 2022.
China, which is already the second largest economic power in the world, has changed from being a country of “copies” to a technological power. The conquest of space is the logical path of a country that increasingly wants to establish itself as a global power on the international scene.
Via: Reuters
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