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The Chinese Chang’e-5 spacecraft landed on the moon Tuesday afternoon. The next stage of the mission, already on the ground, is to collect about two kilos of lunar soil.
The spacecraft landed near Mons Rümker, a mountain in the Moon Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) region after 11 pm in Beijing, 3 pm in mainland Portugal, the Chinese newspaper “South China Morning Post” reports.
Chang’e-5 launched on November 23 on an unmanned mission that aims to collect two kilograms of samples of lunar material to learn more about the origins of Earth’s natural satellite.
The landing site for the lander, Ocean of Storms, was chosen due to the geological age of that area, which will be about 3.7 billion years old, which may help scientists gain more information about the formation and evolution of the moon. , Explain. the Chinese newspaper.
The latitude of the sampling point was also based on factors such as sunlight intensity and temperature. The location will help reduce fuel consumption for the elevator to carry the samples to the part of the spacecraft that is in orbit.
When the collection is complete, it will take off again to meet the orbital module and return capsule. After that, the set will return to Earth.
Harvesting should begin in the next two days. The probe has several instruments to facilitate collection, including a camera, a spectrometer, a radar, a scoop, and a drill.
If the mission is completed successfully, China will be the third nation to recover lunar samples, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, which 44 years ago managed to collect about 200 grams of rock.
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