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An artist\u2019s impression of Chang\u2019e 6 touching down on the moon<\/p>\n
CGTN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
The Chang\u2019e 6 spacecraft will attempt to land on the far side of the moon on 1 June. If successful, it will extract the first samples of lunar rock from this largely unexplored region of the moon and attempt to bring them back to Earth.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Chang\u2019e series of lunar spacecraft have taken on steadily more ambitious missions, with the eventual goal of establishing a crewed base on the moon in the 2030s. Chang\u2019e 6, which launched aboard a Long March 5 rocket on 3 May, is China\u2019s second sample return mission, after Chang\u2019e 5 successfully delivered a kilogram of material from the moon\u2019s near side to Earth in 2020.<\/p>\n
Chang\u2019e 6, however, will attempt to collect around 2 kilograms of material from the far side of the moon, which faces permanently away from Earth. It is harder to land on compared with the near side because of the lack of a direct communications link with Earth, so it is little explored and we have no samples from the region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The spacecraft is targeting the Apollo crater in the far side\u2019s southern hemisphere. Scientists hope that these samples might indicate how much water ice is trapped in the region, for future crewed missions, as well as help explain the origin of the larger South Pole-Aitken impact basin that it sits in and how the moon was formed. As well as samples, the lander also has four scientific instruments, from French, Italian, Pakistani and Swedish teams, to analyse and study the landing area.<\/p>\n The lander, ascender and orbiter modules have been orbiting the moon for around three weeks, since 8 May, and China\u2019s space agency has been waiting for the right orbital conditions to attempt a landing.<\/p>\n On 1 June, the lander and ascender module will detach from the orbiter and begin a roughly 15-minute descent toward the lunar surface. Due to the delay in communications between Earth and the moon\u2019s far side, much of the landing process will be automated, but Chinese engineers can still communicate with the spacecraft using instructions sent using the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, which launched in March this year and is currently in lunar orbit.<\/p>\n Once on the moon, the lander module will use a robotic scoop and drill to take surface samples of rocks and dust, as well as dig down around 2 metres into the lunar surface to extract deeper deposits. Gathering these samples will take around two days.<\/p>\n Once the lander has successfully taken its lunar samples, it will transfer them to the ascender module, which will autonomously blast off from the moon and meet with the orbiting module, after a 6-minute flight. The samples will then transfer to a return capsule that can survive the descent through Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\nHow will Chang\u2019e 6 land?<\/h2>\n
When will Chang\u2019e 6 return to Earth?<\/h2>\n