The Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-6 has successfully landed on the far side of the Moon, where, for the first time in history, it will use its robotic arm and drill to collect rock and lunar soil samples from this unexplored region.
The CNSA had no words to describe the historic landing and issued this brief press release: “The combination of the Chang’e-6 landing module and elevator landed smoothly on Sunday on the mysterious far side of the Moon. It is another crucial milestone for the mission, the first of its kind.”
The probe was launched on May 3rd and entered lunar orbit on May 8th. The landing went smoothly, “as planned,” and the onboard cameras captured the moment of contact with the lunar surface.
Everything we know about the Chinese space mission
With the help of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, Chang’e-6 landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) on Sunday morning, Beijing time (3:23 p.m. PST on Saturday), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
According to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Apollo Basin was chosen for the landing because it offered a rare flat area to land on the rugged face of the Moon.
For several days, the probe will collect 2 kg of material from the surroundings of the landing site, using a robotic arm to take surface samples and drill for subsurface soils. Then, it will rendezvous with another spacecraft in lunar orbit to return to Earth, with a planned landing in the Inner Mongolia region around June 25th.
This is China’s second trip to the Moon, following a mission in 2019 in which Chang’e-5 landed on the visible side, which has been more explored.
Author: Chema Carvajal Sarabia
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