Chang’e 5 | China successfully lands on the Moon and prepares for sample collection

Although it frustrated much of the scientific community around the world by forgoing live streaming, China successfully landed the Chang’e-5 mission on the lunar surface on Tuesday morning. The lander began a controlled descent at 11:58 am (Brasilia time) and landed at the planned location, near Mons Rümker, in Oceanus Procellarum, 15 minutes later.

A live broadcast on China Central Television (CCTV) was expected, with images from the camera aboard the lander as it approached the lunar surface. However, the transmission did not happen. The first images of the landing were shown by the station after a few moments of uncertainty, would the mission have been postponed? Something went wrong? Fortunately, the Chinese only preferred to keep everything behind the scenes, and only later did the CGTN news channel confirm the success of the landing.

CCTV-13 just ran this. #China #Moon # Change5 pic.twitter.com/gxXBNr7mz6

– Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) December 1, 2020

Do you want ibages? Then take it! Here are the first images made by Chang’e-5 on lunar soil, a soft landing, as happened exactly 7 years ago with Chang’e-3 !!! Long live China !!! Hahaha pic.twitter.com/SfBQDqNorR

– Sacani (Space today) (@ ​​SpaceToday1) December 1, 2020

With this mission, humanity will make its first attempt to bring back samples from the Moon since the late 1970s, when the lunar programs of the United States and the Soviet Union ended. Chang’e-5 is expected to bring at least 2 kg of material so that, in the laboratory, radiometric dating is carried out to know the age of the samples. The selected site theoretically contains younger rocks, and this is what the Chinese should try.

With few impact craters, the region selected for landing is on the visible side of the Moon, that is, the face that constantly faces the Earth. This relative lack of craters suggests that it contains basalt rocks created by volcanism that are perhaps billions of years younger than samples collected by the Apollo and Luna missions. “With the new age data, we can calibrate the crater counting method, making it more accurate for young events,” said Dr. Lin Yangting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The lander was also carrying some science equipment, cameras, and of course the small ascent vehicle that will ascend back into lunar orbit to take the samples. To perform the collection, the lander will use a robotic arm to pierce the ground and capture stones, storing them in a container. As soon as this step is completed, the arm will transfer the container to the climbing module, which is on top of the lander.

Then the small ascension module will lift off into lunar orbit. There, the service module will be waiting for what is perhaps the most delicate moment of the mission: an automated encounter with the promotion vehicle. If all goes well, they will dock and the module will begin to return to Earth, bringing the samples with it.

As it approaches the planet, the sample will be transferred to a fourth spacecraft mounted on this modular complex. It is a reentry capsule, designed to survive the devastating effects of the Earth’s atmosphere on space objects that pass through it. It’s unclear exactly when the little will happen, but it could be around December 16 or 17, probably in Inner Mongolia.

Source: CGTN, Space.com, The Verge, Space News, Ars Technica