Landing on the far side of the moon is rarely attempted, due to difficulties communicating with Earth, but China is about to try. If successful, its Chang'e 6 mission will then bring lunar samples back home
will attempt to land on the far side of the moon on 1 June. If successful, it will extract the first samples of lunar rock from this largely unexplored region of the moon and attempt to bring them back to Earth. China ’s Chang’e series of lunar spacecraft have taken on steadily more ambitious missions, with the eventual goal of establishing a crewed base on the moon in the 2030s.
The spacecraft is targeting the Apollo crater in the far side’s southern hemisphere. Scientists hope that these samples might indicate how much water ice is trapped in the region, for future crewed missions, as well as help explain the origin of the larger South Pole-Aitken impact basin that it sits in and how the moon was formed. As well as samples, the lander also has four scientific instruments, from French, Italian, Pakistani and Swedish teams, to analyse and study the landing area.
Once on the moon, the lander module will use a robotic scoop and drill to take surface samples of rocks and dust, as well as dig down around 2 metres into the lunar surface to extract deeper deposits. Gathering these samples will take around two days.Once the lander has successfully taken its lunar samples, it will transfer them to the ascender module, which will autonomously blast off from the moon and meet with the orbiting module, after a 6-minute flight.
If all goes according to plan, the return sample capsule will arrive at Earth on 25 June, landing at the Siziwang Banner site in Inner Mongolia.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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