The Chinese spacecraft takes off from the moon with samples

A Chinese spacecraft carrying the country’s first lunar samples left the moon Thursday at 11:10 pm (Beijing time), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

It represented the first Chinese spacecraft to take off from an extraterrestrial body.

China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter, lander, ascender and returner, was launched on November 24, and its lander-ascender combination landed north of Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as like the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1st.

After the samples were collected and sealed, Chang’e-5’s elevator took off from the lunar surface. An engine, after running for about six minutes, pushed the elevator to the preset lunar orbit, said Xing Zhuoyi, designer of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft of China Aerospace Science and Technology’s China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). Corporation. .

Unlike the takeoff from the ground, the elevator could not rely on a launch tower system. The lander acted as a temporary “launch pad” that had landed on the lunar surface fairly stably, Xing said.

Lunar takeoff has overcome many challenges, including limited deflection space for the engine plume and different environments between Earth and the moon, he said.

With no navigational constellations around the moon, the elevator used its own special sensors to conduct self-positioning and attitude determination after takeoff, assisted by the ground-based monitoring and control system, Xing said.

Prior to takeoff, a Chinese national flag unfurled from the lander-blocker combination, Xing said.

The spacecraft worked for about 19 hours on the moon and finished its sampling work at 10pm on December 2. The samples were placed in a container inside the probe blocker as intended, the CNSA said.

It adopted two methods of lunar sampling, including using drills to collect subsurface samples and grabbing surface samples with a robotic arm. He collected several samples at different sites.

The elevator is expected to complete the unmanned rendezvous and docking with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit, an unprecedented feat, and the samples will be transferred to the returner.

“An unmanned rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit will be a historical novelty. It will be very difficult,” said Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft at CAST.

When the geometric relationship between the Earth and the moon is adequate, the orbiter will bring the returner back to Earth.

Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world’s first lunar champion mission in more than 40 years.

If successful, the mission will help promote China’s scientific and technological development. It will lay an important foundation for China’s future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration, said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center.