Chinese probe completes moon sampling

Dec 03, 2020

Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the Moon's origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.

SPACE EXPLORATION

A Chinese space probe sent to gather material from a previously 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 poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed 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 its gathering of lunar rocks and soil, the China National Space Administration said.

The spacecraft had been due 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 science journal Nature.

Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the Moon's origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.

Images taken by the camera attached to the Chang'e-5 spacecraft after its landing on the moon



State media said this week that the craft was preparing for "around 48 hours" of tasks on the lunar surface.

If successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following 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.

The CNSA on Thursday said the Chang'e-5 had completed the sampling and successfully packed the collected materials in a special container by Wednesday night.

"Scientific detection was carried out as planned," the space agency said, without providing details.

The samples will be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed to land in northern China's Inner Mongolia region in early December, according to US space agency NASA.

An image of the moon surface taken by the panoramic camera aboard the lander-ascender combination of the Chang'e-5 spacecraft after landing on the moon



The spacecraft was launched from the country's southern Hainan province last week and entered lunar orbit on Saturday after a 112-hour journey.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rows of scientists at mission control, wearing blue jackets emblazoned with Chinese flags, monitoring the probe then clapping after it successfully touched down.

A huge screen at the front of the room displayed images sent by the probe of the grey lunar surface.

A separate state media video released later showed the probe drilling into the moon's surface.

A Long March 5 rocket carrying China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe launches from the Wenchang Space Center on China's southern Hainan Island on November 24, 2020



'No easy task'

The probe was designed to both get samples from the Moon's surface, as well as drill a two-metre (7-foot) deep hole and gather specimens from there, to ensure a diverse collection.

Back on Earth, Chinese scientists used footage from Chang'e-5 to reconstruct patches of the Moon's surface in a lab to better guide the probe's movements, CCTV said.

Footage from the broadcaster showed lab staff from the China Academy of Space Technology wearing augmented reality glasses and using shovels to shape a sand pit according to contours of the moon's surface.

The mission is technically challenging and involves several innovations not seen during previous attempts at collecting moon rocks, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics researcher Jonathan McDowell told AFP last month.

Thomas Zurbuchen, a top official at NASA's science mission directorate, congratulated China on the landing.

"This is no easy task," he tweeted. "When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international science community."

Technical personnel monitoring the process during the Chang'e-5 lunar probe landing on the moon at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing on December 1, 2020



'Space dream'

Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China's "space dream", as he calls it, have been put into overdrive.

Beijing is looking to finally catch up with the US and Russia after years of belatedly matching their space milestones.

China launched its first satellite in 1970, while human spaceflight took decades longer -- with Yang Liwei becoming China's first "taikonaut" in 2003.

A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019 in a global first that boosted Beijing's aspirations to become a space superpower.

The latest probe is among a slew of ambitious targets, which include creating a powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base, and a permanently crewed space station.

China's taikonauts and scientists have also talked up crewed missions to Mars.

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