China wants to collect rock samples from the moon: to the ocean of storms

China sent an unmanned spaceship on its way to the moon. This is where the spacecraft is expected to land and bring rock samples back to earth for the first time in over 40 years. The “Long March 5” rocket took off early Tuesday morning, local time (Monday evening, CET) from the Wenchang space station on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. The spaceship named after the Chinese moon goddess “Chang’e 5” is expected to take a so-called lander to the moon on Sunday, which will collect rocks and drill samples.

With a successful comeback, China would be only the third space nation to succeed in such a project after the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. The spacecraft is expected to land in the volcanic area named after the German astronomer Karl Rümker (1788-1862). It is found in the “ocean of storms” in the upper left of the earth side of the moon.

The mission is considered to be one of the most complicated that Chinese space travel has ever undertaken: for the first time, a Chinese ascent starts over from the moon, takes rock samples and performs a docking maneuver in the orbit of the Earth’s satellite before the capsule in return you fly back to earth.

The 8,200 kilogram spacecraft consists of four modules: the orbiter with the return capsule and the lander with the ascent stage. After touching the lunar surface, the lander will use a long arm to collect about two kilograms of moon rock and samples from wells up to two meters deep and store them in a chamber.

Return in mid-December

The spacecraft will land in Inner Mongolia on December 16 or 17. Scientists are eagerly awaiting the samples, because no rocks from recent lunar history have yet been brought to earth for study. The “ocean of storms” is only 1.2 million years old. Moon rocks collected by the United States and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are significantly older, at 3.1 and 4.4 million years old. The researchers hope the samples will provide important new insights into volcanic activity and the moon’s history.

“Chang’e 5” is said to land on the moon at dawn and stay on earth for one lunar day – two weeks. The spaceship does not have to be equipped with special heating devices to withstand the extremely cold temperatures of the moonlit night. The complexity of the three-week flight is also seen as preparation for possible manned moon landings in the future.

China is carrying out a space program with missions to the Moon and Mars and the construction of its own space station. In January 2019, China was the first space nation to land with “Chang’e 4” on the relatively unexplored side of the moon. A rover was abandoned to continue exploring the surface.