China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully entered lunar orbit following a near-moon braking procedure on May 8, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The probe was launched from a Chinese Long March-5 carrier rocket on May 3 from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern Hainan Province. After about 37 minutes, it separated from the rocket and entered the planned Earth-moon transfer orbit, which the CNSA said has a perigee altitude of 200 kilometers and an apogee of 380,000 kilometers.
In lunar orbit, Chang’e-6 will spend about 20 days adjusting the altitude and inclination of its track for landing and conduct the separation of the orbiter-returner combination and the lander-ascender combination at the right time.
The lander-ascender combination will soft land on the far side of the moon to collect and return soil samples, the first ever sample return from the far side.
Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-6 mission, told the Xinhua News Agency that the Chang’e-6 lunar probe which comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a return module, is planned to land at “an impact crater known as the Apollo basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon.” The probe will use an extendable robotic arm to scoop rocks and soil from different locations and then send it back by the ascender and the returner landing in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The mission is scheduled to last 53 days.
Given that the moon’s near side and far side are sharply different, with the far side much less flat and with far fewer lunar mares, scientists believe that soft landing on the far side is more difficult than on the near side.
But the biggest difficulty lies in communication with the Earth, since the far side always faces away from Earth. All communications have to be supported by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite which China launched in March.
Yang Yuguang, deputy chairman of the Space Transport Commission of the International Astronautical Federation, told NewsChina that the Queqiao-2 relay satellite not only bridges the Earth-moon communication, but also serves as a monitoring station to provide data and monitor against deviations, for the landing, sampling and connection of different combinations.
China’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe made the first landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, and in 2020, China’s Chang’e-5 brought back 1,731 grams of lunar soil samples collected from the near side of the moon. On April 21, China released the world’s first high-precision lunar geological map.
To maximize the use of the space flight and promote international cooperation, Chang’e-6 also carried four other probes or satellites from other countries, a radon gas probe from France, an anion probe from the European Space Agency, a lunar laser reflector from Italy and the CubeSat satellite from Pakistan.
The CNSA said that China will launch the Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 missions to help with the construction of the Chinese lunar scientific research station, which China plans to finish by 2030.
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