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A Chinese probe was orbiting the moon on Monday in preparation for the return of samples from the lunar surface to Earth for the first time in nearly 45 years. The ascent module of Chang’e 5 spaceship transferred a container with 4.4 pounds of samples after docking with the robot spacecraft on Sunday and was later released. The achievement made China the first country to execute a robotic docking in lunar orbit.
The orbiter and reentry vehicle will circle the moon for another week waiting for a narrow window of time to make the roughly three-day, 238,000-mile journey back to Earth. It will first “bounce” off Earth’s atmosphere to slow down before the reentry vehicle separates and parachutes to land in the vast steppes of Inner Mongolia, where China’s Shenzhou manned spacecraft have also landed.
/ AP
If the mission is successful, it will make China the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to bring moon rocks to Earth. They will be the first fresh samples of the lunar surface obtained by scientists from the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 probe in 1976.
Chang’e 5’s ascent stage lifted off the moon’s surface on Friday, leaving the lander behind. waving the chinese flagaccording to the China National Space Agency. The agency also posted a photo taken by the orbiter showing it approaching its encounter with the ascendant, a sliver of Earth seen in the background.
CNSA
That was the first time that China managed to lift a spacecraft off a celestial body, while no country had previously accomplished the complicated feat of executing a robotic docking in lunar orbit. Controllers on Earth had to deal with distance and time lag while accurately maneuvering a clamp into position with almost no margin for error.
The 23-day mission has been front-page news in state media for days, along with reports that China has officially lifted all of its citizens out of the most devastating form of poverty. In addition to being a propaganda coup for the ruling Communist Party, the dual stories illustrate the vast economic and technological advances that China has made since it became the third country in history to launch a person into space in 2003.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying praised the “courage to explore, overcome difficulties and make great efforts” of those who made the mission possible.
“The entire Chinese people are proud of the efforts and wisdom of Chinese lunar exploration researchers,” Hua told reporters at a daily briefing on Monday.
CNSA
By cautious incremental steps, China is now in the midst of a series of ambitious missions that include a probe en route to Mars and the development of a reusable space plane about which little information has been provided.
Future plans call for returning a human being to the moon five decades after American astronauts, along with a possible permanent lunar base, though no timeline has been offered. China is also building a permanent space station that will begin operating in 2022.
The US opposition has blocked China’s military-backed and secret program from participating in the International Space Station, although the CNSA has been expanding its ties with other programs, including the European Space Agency, which has helped guide Chang’e. 5 on your mission.
Last week, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s chief science officer, tweeted a congratulatory message to China after the spaceship landed on the moon.
Chang’e 5 landed on December 1 in the Sea of Storms on the closest side of the moon, near a formation called Mons Rumker, an area believed to have been the site of ancient volcanic activity.
The rocks and other debris were obtained both by drilling into the lunar crust and by extracting directly from the surface. They are believed to be possibly billions of years younger than those brought before and can offer insight into the history of the moon, as well as that of other bodies in our solar system.
The lunar exploration program has established dedicated laboratories to analyze samples for age and composition. China is also expected to share some of them with other countries, as it did with the hundreds of pounds of rocks, sand, dust and other samples obtained by the United States and the former Soviet Union.
China is executing an incremental approach to its lunar program, launching a series of increasingly complex robotic spacecraft to develop and test the propulsion, guidance, navigation and landing systems necessary for long-term exploration.
The Chang’e 1 and 2 missions successfully reached lunar orbit in 2007 and 2010 respectively, followed by the Chang’e 3 lunar lander in 2013 and Chang’e 4, which landed on the opposite side of the moon in 2019. Chang’e 5 is the first of two planned sample return missions and China’s most ambitious lunar mission to date.
Bill Harwood contributed to this report.
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