News JVTech This is a historic victory for China, which lifts the veil on the hidden side of the Moon.
Published on 01/07/2024 at 08:50
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The return to Earth of China’s Chang’e-6 probe marks a historic milestone in the country’s space program. Indeed, it brought back to our planet the first samples from the far side of the Moon. A perfect conclusion to a very complex mission.
Like many other countries today, China has been racing to the Moon for several years nowNASA and ESA are in a good position, but we must now clearly count on China, which has just succeeded in one of its most ambitious missions.
Last May, the Chinese space agency CNSA sent a probe to the Earth’s satellite. This, named Chang’e-6, aimed to carry out a series of experiments and bring lunar samples back to Earth. The first crucial step had arrived on June 2, when theThe probe successfully landed on the Moon. The entire mission still had to be completed.
A very ambitious 53-day mission
When the Chang’e-6 probe landed in the South Pole-Aitken basin on June 2, The objective of the CNSA was to collect lunar material from the hidden face of the star. This is a place very rarely touched upon until now, for the good reason thatCarrying out space missions there is very complicated : in fact, communication is very difficult there, particularly because we cannot see it from Earth, as its name suggests.
It turns out, in fact, that the Chinese probe successfully completed the second stage of its mission on June 4by carrying out the expected samples. She then, quickly returned to Earth : “Chang’e-6 blasted off from the lunar surface Tuesday morning carrying samples collected from the far side of the Moon, an unprecedented feat in the history of human lunar exploration.”the official Xinhua news agency said that day.
The probe returned to Earth on June 25 : it landed in the Inner Mongolia region, located in northern China. The samples could be successfully recovered.
Lunar mysteries soon to be revealed?
Thanks to the samples taken by Chang’e-6, Chinese scientists should learn more about how the Moon has evolved since its formationAccording to the CNSA, they could help to better understand “the origin of the solar system”but also provide valuable information that could help future missions to the Moon.
And China already sees itself there: it plans to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030, with the concrete objective of building a base there. The country will not be the only one on the case, but perhaps its next discoveries will give it a head start…
