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BEIJING, Dec. 13 (China Daily / ANN): The reentry capsule and orbiter combination of China’s Chang’e 5 robotic probe carried out its first moon-to-Earth transfer injection maneuver on Saturday morning (12 December), placing itself in an elliptical lunar orbit. , according to the China National Space Administration.
The combination had been traveling in a near-circular lunar orbit for nearly six days before performing the maneuver, which is intended to allow the spacecraft to shift onto a moon-to-Earth transfer path, the administration said in a statement.
He added that the combination will perform a second injection in due time to move away from the moon’s gravity and eventually enter its trajectory back to Earth.
There are about 2 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil inside the reentry capsule.
After reaching Earth orbit, the pair will separate in due course, and the reentry capsule will perform a series of complicated maneuvers to return to a pre-arranged landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in mid-July. December.
Chang’e 5, China’s largest and most sophisticated lunar probe, has four main components: an orbiter, a lander, an ascendant, and a reentry capsule. The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-load carrier rocket on early November 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan province, kicking off China’s most challenging lunar adventure and the first world mission since 1976 to bring back lunar samples. to the earth.
The probe split into two parts, the reentry capsule and orbiter combination and the lander and ascendant combination, while in lunar orbit early in the morning of November 30.
Late on December 1, the lander and ascendant combination landed on the moon, becoming the world’s third spacecraft to land on the lunar surface this century after its predecessors, Chang’e 3 and 4. Little After landing, the duo soon began using a drill to collect underground samples 2 meters below the surface.
It finished the underground operation early in the morning on December 2 and then began using a mechanical arm to pick up dirt from the surface.
All the picking and packing processes ended on the night of that day, much earlier than expected. The samples were packed in a vacuum container inside the ascendant.
The ascendant fired a motor late on December 3 to rise into an elliptical lunar orbit and prepare for docking with the reentry capsule, marking the first time a Chinese spacecraft has lifted off an alien body.
It was assembled and docked with the reentry capsule and orbiter combination early Sunday morning and then transferred lunar samples to the capsule.
The operation is the first automated rendezvous and docking for any spacecraft in a lunar orbit.
The last time two components of a spacecraft met and docked with each other in lunar orbit took place in December 1972 during the last Apollo mission, and that was monitored and controlled by astronauts.
The ascender then separated from the combination. It was ordered to hit the moon on Tuesday morning.
If successful, the highly sophisticated Chang’e 5 mission would be the first in more than 40 years to bring lunar samples back to Earth, and it would make China the third country to do so after the United States and the former Soviet Union. – China Daily / Asian News Network
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