Chang’e 5 has landed: China is the new power on the moon

Born in Stargard in Mecklenburg, with jobs in Hamburg, the Australian state of New South Wales, London, Lisbon, Carl Rümker was a true cosmopolitan as early as the 19th century. And an expert in the cosmos. Among other things, the astronomer created a star catalog with many thousands of entries. More than 70 years after his death, the German researcher received a great honor: in 1935, a volcanic mountain on the moon was named after him. It is found in the Oceanus Procellarum Plain, the Sea of ​​Storms, on the northwestern side of the Earth’s satellite facing Earth.

Not far from this Mons Rümker, the Chinese lunar probe “Chang’e 5” has landed, according to the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. What’s special about the mission: The research robot is supposed to drill for moon rocks in the ground and return the material to earth in just a few days. It would be the first time in more than 40 years that researchers would receive new samples from our neighbor in space, and a further step in China’s ambitious lunar program, which has already made headlines with a landing on the other side of the moon and two robotic cars.

If the current mission is successful, China would be the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to return lunar samples to Earth. With their “Apollo” astronauts, the Americans brought in a total of 382 kilograms of lunar rock from six different landing sites. The samples are still being investigated today, only some of them have been opened. Three Soviet “Luna” robotic probes collected another 326 grams. In addition, about 190 kilograms of meteorite material is available for research, which was thrown to Earth when it struck the Moon.

The Chinese now want to collect around two kilograms of lunar material. On the one hand, it should be dust and debris from the surface, and on the other hand, at least one core of rock that you want to extract with a tungsten carbide bit from a depth of up to two meters.

Researcher Timothy Glotch from Stony Brook University in New York is particularly familiar with where “Chang’e 5” is installed. Together with his Chinese colleagues, he has published a specialized article on the geology of the area. “This is a relatively safe and level landing site,” Glotch explains in an interview with SPIEGEL. This is due to the fact that relatively few large rocks can be found in the area. Also, there are quite a few craters. This in turn has to do with the fact that the region’s surface was shaped by volcanic activity significantly longer than other parts of the moon.

Young rocks

Today the satellite seems cold and dead to us, once an ocean of magma poured there, spewing volcanoes, some of them powerful, fire for several billion years. Some researchers believe that there was volcanic activity in some areas 100 million years ago.

While the lunar samples examined so far on Earth are between 3.2 and 4.6 billion years old, there could also be material on Mons Rümker that is at most two billion years old. “The age of these rocks makes them interesting. They are among the youngest on the moon, ”Glotch explains. In this way, geologists were able to learn something about late volcanism there, and how the celestial body emitted its heat over time. According to Glotch, these findings could also be transferred to other rocky planets in the inner solar system.

The rocks are also very exciting on a fundamental level: until now, science has illuminated the history of the moon largely based on impacts on its surface. Areas with many craters are very old, those with the least impact marks are much younger. This chronology was calibrated with chemical examinations of the lunar samples of the material “Apollo” and “Luna”. When the much younger “Chang’e” rocks are added, the moon’s history may well have to be rewritten over hundreds of millions of years, according to Glotch.

But for this, the Chinese must first collect the samples. The Chinese space agency CNSA will soon announce whether the maneuvers work. First you need to drill, then the surface material is collected with a shovel. Both actions should take place on Tuesday. The reason for the rush is probably the fear of Chinese space experts that the mechanical parts of the probe could be damaged by the sharp differences in temperature on the Moon.

On Thursday, observers suspect, the ascent stage of “Chang’e 5” will lift off again from the surface. In lunar orbit, the samples are transferred to a return capsule that brings them back to Earth. The landing is scheduled about 10 days later on the plateaus of Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northeast China.

Western experts find the Chinese approach remarkable. “This mission is more complicated than it really should be,” says Mark McCaughrean, chief scientific advisor to the European Space Agency (ESA) in an interview with SPIEGEL. “It has a lot in common with the Apollo missions and is clearly designed as another step toward a human-manned mission.”

Long-term ambitions

Europeans support China’s trip to the moon with the huge antennas of its global communications network. They want to cooperate with Beijing to the best of their ability. Because they still have big plans on the moon: In addition to the United States, which at least under outgoing President Donald Trump had targeted a manned moon landing by 2024, China also plans to send people to the moon. And, like Americans, not just for a short trip.

A long-term presence is planned, even if there is no official date for this yet. “We will determine when to conduct a manned moon landing based on scientific needs and technical and economic conditions,” said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Center for Moon Exploration and Space Technology at the China National Space Agency.