Beijing: China has landed its unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the moon in a landmark exploration mission that aims to collect the world's first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere and provide better insights into geological and other differences between that region and the better-known near side. The landing elevates China's space power status in a global rush to the Moon, where countries are planning long-term astronaut missions.
The Chang'e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched down in a gigantic impact crater called the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's space-facing side at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time (2223 GMT), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement on its website. This is China's most complex robotic lunar mission to date and is a key milestone in Beijing's push to become a dominant space power.
The 53-day mission is unprecedented and would be the latest advance in the increasingly sophisticated and ambitious space exploration programme by China, which already landed a rover on the Moon's far side, becoming the first country to do so. The Moon's mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work, but requires a relay satellite to maintain communications.
According to the CNSA, the mission "involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty" and the payloads carried by the lander will "work as planned and carry out scientific exploration missions". The Chang'e-6 probe launched on May 3 on China's Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, reaching the lunar vicinity roughly a week later before tightening its orbit in preparation for a landing.
Why is it difficult to reach the Moon's far side?
Using a scoop and drill, the lander will aim to collect 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of lunar material and bring it back to Earth. The samples will be transferred to a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, tag up with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and return, with a landing in China's Inner Mongolia region expected around June 25. If all goes well, the findings will provide China with an unblemished record of the Moon's 4.5 billion-year history and yield new clues on the solar system's formation.
China in 2020 returned samples from the moon's near side, the first time anyone has done so since the US Apollo programme that ended in the 1970s. Analysis of the samples found they contained water in tiny beads embedded in lunar dirt. Chang’e-6 relies on the Queqiao-2 satellite, launched into lunar orbit in March, to maintain communications. The probe is composed of four parts - an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a reentry module.
Missions to the moon's far side are more difficult because it doesn't face the Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications. The back of the moon perpetually faces away from the Earth and is dotted with deep and dark craters, making communications and robotic landing operations more challenging. No other country than China has managed to reach the far side of the Moon.
US-China space competition
The expected launch of the probe comes at the heels of the rivalry with the US as a growing number of countries, including America, are eying the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration in an increasingly competitive field. China has made rapid space advancements in recent years, in a field traditionally led by the United States and Russia.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of US concerns over the Chinese military's total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. Beijing aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the US to do so. Washington is also planning to send astronauts to the Moon, although NASA pushed the target date back to 2026.
US efforts to use private sector rockets to launch spacecraft have been repeatedly delayed. Last-minute computer trouble nixed the planned launch of Boeing's first astronaut flight on Saturday. NASA has partnered with several space agencies including Canada’s, Europe’s and Japan’s, whose astronauts will join US crews on a future Artemis mission. The US space programme is believed to still hold a significant edge over China's due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities.
(with inputs from agencies)
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