China successfully landed a spacecraft on the surface of the moon.
China successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface on Tuesday on a landmark mission to retrieve samples from the lunar surface, Chinese state media reported.
China launched its Chang’e-5 probe on November 24. The unmanned mission, named after the mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, aims to collect lunar material to help scientists learn more about the origins of the moon.
The mission will attempt to collect 2 kg (4-1 / 2 lbs) of samples in a previously unvisited area in a massive lava plain known as the Oceanus Procellarum or “Ocean of Storms.”
If the mission is completed as planned, it would make China the third nation to have recovered lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union.
The lander that landed on the surface of the moon was one of several spacecraft deployed by the Chang’e-5 probe.
Upon landing, the lander is supposed to pierce the ground with a robotic arm, then transfer its soil and rock samples to an ascending vehicle that would take off and dock with an orbiting module.
State broadcaster CCTV said it would begin collecting samples on the lunar surface in the next two days. The samples would be transferred to a return capsule for the return trip to Earth, landing in the Inner Mongolia region of China.
China made its first lunar landing in 2013. In January last year, the Chang’e-4 probe landed on the far side of the moon, the first space probe of any nation to do so.
.
