Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – The Chang’e-5 probe successfully landed on the near side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Tuesday (Dec 1).
The touchdown took place at around 11:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) and the probe sent back footage from the moment of landing that was both soft and successful.
During the next two days, the Chang’e-5 lander will gather approximately two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of lunar rocks and soil to help scientists shed light on the Moon’s origins, formation, and volcanic activity on its surface.
The lunar material will be collected from a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum — or “Ocean of Storms”, which consists of a vast lava plain.
The Chang’e-5 probe includes a lander, ascender, orbiter, and returner. After the spacecraft entered the circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon, the lander-and-ascender pair split, descended, and landed at the planned area on the moon.
The lander will shovel some surface material and also drill a two-meter-deep hole and scoop up the soil from inside it, which will act like an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago and the top more closely reflecting the present day.
The samples will then be stored in the ascender, which will lift off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the returner and orbiter waiting in the lunar orbit. The unmanned rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit will also be the first such task conducted by China,” reports CGTN.
Then, at a proper time, the returner will separate from the orbiter and carry the samples back to Earth, which will finally land in North China’s Inner Mongolia.
Once completed, the Chang’e-5 probe will become part of the world’s first unmanned sample return mission from the moon in 40 years and will make China the third country in the world to bring back lunar samples after the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.
The Chang’e-5 probe was launched from China’s southern Hainan province on the early morning of November 24 and entered the Moon’s orbit on Saturday (Nov 28) after a 112-hour journey from Earth, Xinhua informed.
The executed soft landing took place on the near side of the Moon late Tuesday (Dec 1, 2020).
“The US space agency congratulated China,” BBC wrote.
“Nasa’s top science official, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, said he hoped the international research community would eventually get the chance to analyze any samples sent home.
“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,” he tweeted.
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff