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BEIJING: Chinese ground crews are awaiting the return of a lunar probe that brings the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 45 years.
The Chang’e probe is expected to land in the Siziwang district of the vast Inner Mongolia region late on Wednesday (December 14) or early Thursday morning.
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It fired its engines early Wednesday to put it on course before the orbiter separates from the return vehicle, with all systems working as expected, the China National Space Administration said.
Recovery of the return vehicle will be complicated by its small size, darkness and lots of snow, state media reported. The plans call for it to make an initial bounce in Earth’s atmosphere to slow down before passing and hovering by parachute, making it difficult to accurately calculate where it will land, the official Xinhua news agency quoted team leader Bian Hancheng as saying recovery, as I said.
State broadcaster CCTV showed four military helicopters stopped Wednesday morning at a base in snow-covered grasslands.
Vehicle crews on the ground will also seek to focus on the signals. Although huge in size, the area is relatively familiar due to its use as a landing site for China’s Shenzhou manned spacecraft.
Chang’e 5 landed on the moon on December 1 and collected about 2 kg of samples by lifting them from the surface and drilling 2 m into the lunar crust. The samples were deposited in a sealed container which was carried back to the return module in a lift vehicle.
Flying a Chinese flag, the lander stopped working shortly after being used as a launch pad for the ascendant, which was ejected from the orbiter after transferring the samples and landed on the moon’s surface.
The return of the spacecraft will mark the first time scientists have obtained fresh samples of lunar rocks from the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 robot probe in 1976.
The Chang’e 5 took off from a launch base in southern China’s Hainan island province on 23 November on a mission expected to last 23 days.
READ: Chinese probe orbiting the moon with samples from Earth
It marks China’s third successful lunar landing, but it is the only one to lift off from the moon again. Its predecessor, Chang’e 4, became the first probe to land on the little-explored far side of the moon and continues to send data on conditions that could affect future extended human stay on the moon.
The moon has been a particular focus of the Chinese space program, which says it plans to bring humans there and possibly build a permanent base. No timelines or other details have been announced.
China has also joined the effort to explore Mars. In July, it launched the Tianwen 1 probe, which was carrying a lander and a rover robot to search for water.
China’s space program has proceeded with more caution than the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union of the 1960s, which was marked by fatalities and launch failures.
In 2003, China became the third country to send an astronaut into orbit on its own after the Soviet Union and the United States.
The latest flight includes collaboration with the European Space Agency, which is helping to monitor the mission. Amid concerns about the secrecy of the Chinese space program and close military connections, the United States prohibits cooperation between NASA and the CNSA unless Congress gives approval.
That has prevented China from participating in the International Space Station, something it has sought to compensate for with the launch of an experimental space station and plans to complete a permanent orbit outpost in the next two years.
The rocks and debris brought in by Chang’e 5 are believed to be billions of years younger than those obtained by the US and the former Soviet Union, offering new perspectives on the history of the moon and others. bodies of the solar system.
They come from a part of the moon known as Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, near a site called Mons Rumker that was believed to be volcanic in ancient times.
As with the 382 kg of lunar samples brought in by American astronauts from 1969 to 1972, they will be analyzed by age and composition and will likely be shared with other countries.
