China prepares to send space probe to the moon | Voice of America



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China is expected to send an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon, where it would collect sand and rock samples and return them to Earth. If successful, it would be the first mission of any nation to remove samples from the lunar surface since the 1970s and the third nation after the United States and Russia to remove such samples.

The Chang’e 5 lunar probe, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect materials that can help scientists better understand the origin and formation of the moon.

The US space agency, NASA, says the mission’s goal is to land in a previously unvisited area of ​​the planet known as Oceanus Procellarum and operate during a lunar day, which lasts 14 days from Earth, and return with two kilograms of lunar sand, possibly coming from depths up to 2 meters.

NASA announces the Artemis program, which would govern coexistence on the Moon

The principles issued under the Artemis program, as published by NASA, attempt to reconcile the exploitation of resources and lay the foundations for a larger expedition, such as the journey to Mars, with the participation of different nations.

The sample would have been sent to Earth in a capsule by the Long March 5 missile landing in the Siziwang Banner grasslands of the Mongolian Autonomous Region in China.

During a short visit, organized by the government, to the space launch center, the reporters were taken to a place from which they could see, in the distance, the Long March 5 rocket that would have carried the Chang’e 5 probe to the moon. It is scheduled for November 24, from four to five in the morning.

The news agency Reuters reported that China made its first moon landing in 2013. In January 2019, the Chang’e 4 probe landed on the moon, the first time it had been a lunar probe. In the next decade, China plans to establish a robotic moon base to conduct unmanned exploration of the satellite’s South Pole area.

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