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Xinhua
Photo taken at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing on Dec.3, 2020, shows the ascendant of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft taking off from the lunar surface.
A Chinese spacecraft carrying the country’s first lunar samples lifted off from the Moon at 11:10 p.m. (Beijing time) on Thursday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.
It represented the first Chinese spacecraft to take off from an extraterrestrial body.
China’s Chang’e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, lander, ascendant and return, was launched on November 24, and its lander and ascendant combination landed north of Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1.
After the samples were collected and sealed, Chang’e-5’s ascendant lifted off the lunar surface. A motor, after working for about six minutes, pushed the ascendant into the preset lunar orbit, said Xing Zhuoyi, designer of the Chang’e-5 probe at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) of the Science and Technology Corporation. China Aerospace. .
Xinhua
This simulated image shows the Chang’e-5 spacecraft taking off from the lunar surface.
Unlike takeoff on the ground, the ascender could not rely on a launch tower system. The lander acted as a temporary “launch pad,” which had landed on the lunar surface fairly stably, Xing said.
The lunar liftoff conquered many challenges, including limited detour space for the engine boom and different environments between Earth and the Moon, he said.
Without any navigation constellations around the moon, the ascender used its own special sensors to perform self-positioning and attitude determination after take-off, assisted by the ground monitoring and control system, Xing said.
Before takeoff, a Chinese national flag was unfurled from the lander and ascendant combination, Xing said.
The spacecraft had worked for about 19 hours on the moon and finished its sampling work at 10 p.m. on December 2. The samples were stored in a container inside the probe’s elevator as planned, the CNSA said.
He adopted two methods of lunar sampling, including using drills to collect samples from the subsurface and taking samples at the surface with a robotic arm. He collected various samples at different sites.
The ascendant is expected to complete the unmanned encounter and docking with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit, an unprecedented feat, and samples will be transferred to the returner.
“An unmanned encounter and docking in lunar orbit will be a historic first. It will be very difficult,” said Peng Jing, CAST’s deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 probe.
Xinhua
Photo taken at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing on Dec.3, 2020 shows the ascendant of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft flying over the lunar surface.
When the geometric relationship between the Earth and the Moon is adequate, the orbiter will take the returner to Earth.
Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world’s first lunar sampling mission in more than 40 years.
If successful, the mission will help promote China’s scientific and technological development. It will lay an important foundation for China’s future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration, said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Center for Space Program and Lunar Exploration.
