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Beijing (AFP)
A Chinese space probe sent to collect material from an unexplored part of the moon has completed its mission and is preparing to send back the world’s first lunar samples in four decades, Beijing said Thursday.
China has invested billions in its military-run space program, with hopes of having a manned space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon.
The Chang’e-5 spacecraft, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, landed on the moon Tuesday and has now completed the collection of lunar rocks and soil, the China National Space Administration said.
The spacecraft was supposed to collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material from an area known as Oceanus Procellarum – or “Ocean of Storms” – a vast lava plain, according to the scientific journal Nature.
Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
State media said this week that the aircraft was preparing for “approximately 48 hours” of activity on the lunar surface.
If successful, China will only be the third country to have recovered samples from the Moon, after the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
This is the first such attempt since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
CNSA said Thursday that the Chang’e-5 had completed sampling and successfully packed the collected materials into a special container by Wednesday evening.
“The scientific detection was done as planned,” the space agency said, without giving details.
The samples will be returned to Earth in a capsule scheduled to land in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China in early December, according to US space agency NASA.
© 2020 AFP
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