China will send a probe to the moon for rock samples, for the first time since the 1970s

For the first time since the 1970s, China will attempt to bring rock samples from the lunar surface. Beijing hopes the Chang-e 5 unmanned probe, scheduled for launch on Tuesday, will successfully remove the rocks to help scientists better understand the moon’s origin and formation, the BBC said Sunday.

The last space mission of its kind, the Soviet Luna 24, took place in 1976. If the Chang-e 5 probe is successful, China will become only the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to carry moon rocks on Earth with their own technologies.

The Chang-e 5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess, will be launched into space by the Changcheng 5 rocket (Long March 5). The probe must collect two kilograms of samples from a hitherto unvisited area of ​​the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms).

During the 1976 mission, only 170 grams of samples were collected. Manned missions of the US Apollo space program cleverly brought 382 kilograms of lunar rocks to Earth.

Experts want to find out from the samples carried by Chang-e 5 how long the Moon has been volcanically active and when its magnetic field has disappeared, which is critical to protecting any life form from sunlight. China also plans to obtain samples from the surface of Mars in the next decade.