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The Chang’e 5 probe has completed its mission to the lunar surface and is now preparing to return to Earth
China’s National Space Administration announced Thursday that its Chang’e 5 spacecraft has completed collecting and storing debris and rocks from the lunar surface and is expected to return to Earth in the next few hours.
The spacecraft explored the Oceanus Procellarum region, an area not yet visited by astronauts or unmanned space missions. In addition to collecting materials, the spacecraft also dedicated itself to capturing several images, mapping the region’s subsurface with a penetration radar and analyzing the lunar soil for minerals.
The probe is expected to land in Inner Mongolia, Chinese territory, in the next few hours.
If the mission is completed successfully, China will join the list of countries that have collected lunar samples, which includes the United States and the former Soviet Union. It is also the first time that work has been done to collect lunar sediments since the 1970s.
Chang’e 5 is the latest venture in the Chinese space program, which currently has the Tianwen 1 probe en route to Mars.
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