China’s Chang’e 6 returns with first rocks from far side of the moon

China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft has returned to Earth, bringing back the first chunks of space rock from the far side of the moon.

The capsule touched down in Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia, China, on 25 June, after separating from an orbiting container 5000 kilometres above the Atlantic Ocean at about 1:20pm local time.

The sample, which should contain around 2 kilograms of material from the moon, then floated down for the last 10 kilometres using parachutes. It landed at 2:07pm before being collected by scientists from the China National Space Administration.

The difficulty of landing on the moon’s far side, which permanently faces away from Earth and so has no direct communications link, had meant that the region’s surface was unexplored until the Chinese spacecraft landed at the start of the month.

Its landing and collection manoeuvres relied heavily on autonomous processes and robotic tools, although Chinese engineers could send messages to the spacecraft through the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, which launched in March this year and is still in orbit around the moon.

The sample contains material from the surface and from 2 metres underground, which Chang’e 6 drilled and scooped at its landing site in the Apollo crater, itself situated within the larger South Pole-Aitken basin. Scientists hope that this material will help explain how and when these basins formed, which could allow us to understand the origin of other, similar lunar craters.

The rock may also indicate the quantity of water ice in the region, which could be a vital resource for crewed missions that China hopes to send to the moon by 2030.

Before China undertakes a crewed mission, it will send a further two spacecraft, Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8, to the moon’s south pole to gather information on locations for a possible base there called the International Lunar Research Station. China is co-leading this mission along with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.