A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon on Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could shed light on differences between the less-explored region and the more known near side.
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The China National Space Administration said the landing module landed in a huge crater called the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time.
This mission is the sixth mission of the Chang’e lunar exploration program, named after a Chinese moon goddess. It is the second design to bring back samples, before Chang’e 5 did so from the near-Earth region in 2020.
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The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the US – which is still the leader in space exploration – and others including Japan and India. China has put its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there.
The rising global power aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, making it the second country after the United States to do so. The US is also planning to land astronauts on the moon again – for the first time in more than 50 years – although NASA earlier this year pushed the target date to 2026.
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US efforts to use private sector rockets to launch spacecraft have been delayed repeatedly. On Saturday, the planned launch of Boeing’s first astronaut flight was cancelled at the last minute by a computer glitch.
Earlier on Saturday, a Japanese billionaire canceled his plan to orbit the moon due to uncertainty over SpaceX’s development of a mega rocket that NASA plans to use to send its astronauts to the moon.
In China’s current mission, the lander is to collect 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of surface and underground material over about two days using a mechanical arm and a drill.
An ascender mounted on the lander will carry the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting the moon. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is scheduled to return to Earth in the desert of China’s Inner Mongolia region around June 25.
Missions to the far side of the moon are more difficult because it is not facing Earth, so relay satellites are needed to maintain communications. The ground is also more rugged, and there are fewer flat areas to land on.
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Published: June 02, 2024, 06:49 AM IST
