The samples may contain volcanic rocks that are 2.5 million years old.
China’s lunar lander Chang’e-6 returned to Earth this week with the first ever rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon.
After a 53-day mission, the return aircraft landed safely in Inner Mongolia at 2:07 p.m. local time on Tuesday, it said. China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The CNSA said in a news release that the landing “marks a complete success of the Chang’e-6 lunar exploration mission and marks the world’s first return of samples from the far side of the moon.”
The return craft will be flown to Beijing, where the cabin will be opened and the sample container will be removed, and a formal handover ceremony will be held after which analysis and research will begin, the CNSA said.
The Chang’e-6 probe was launched on May 3 from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on China’s Hainan island and arrived on the moon on May 8. It orbited the moon for 20 days before finding a landing site, the Space Activities Commission said in a statement. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
The lander separated from the orbiter and touched down on June 1 near the southern part of Apollo Crater, which is within the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest and oldest known basin, which researchers believe was the site of an impact more than 4 billion years ago.
This area has been thought to be a key part of understanding the cause of the massive impact on the Moon billions of years ago. Late heavy bombingAccording to the nonprofit organization The Planetary Society.
According to GSFC, the goal of the Chang’e-6 mission was to drill into the moon’s surface to a depth of 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) and retrieve about 2 kilograms (about 70.5 ounces) of samples.
The researchers estimate that the sample is made up of volcanic rocks and material left behind by a meteorite impact 2.5 million years ago, in line with geologists’ predictions published in the journal. Innovation on monday.
Dr Zongyu Yue, a geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a statement that the sample “is expected to help answer one of the most fundamental scientific questions in lunar science research: what geological activity causes the difference between the front and back of the moon and the sun?”
Several countries are looking to expand their own lunar space programs.
Last year, India and Japan became the fourth and fifth countries, respectively, to land a spacecraft on the moon.
Meanwhile, the United States is preparing for its first manned mission to the Moon in decades, with a lunar flyby currently planned for September 2025 and a lunar landing attempt for September 2026.
Russia attempted to land a spacecraft on the moon in August 2023 for the first time since 1976, but the Luna 25 lander crashed into the lunar surface.
CNSA Future lunar missions According to NASA, Chang’e 6 will be followed by Chang’e 7 in 2026, which will conduct a detailed survey of the moon’s south pole, and Chang’e 8 in 2028 to test technologies needed to build a lunar science base.