What To Know
- After about two months in space, the Chang’e 6 mission capsule has returned to Earth, carrying about two kilos of samples taken from the far side of the Moon.
- The mission Chang’e 6led by China, marks a turning point in lunar exploration by focusing on the far side of the Moon, a region that is still largely unexplored.
- This basin, one of the largest impact craters on the Moon, is considered a major site of interest to scientists because of its size and location in the south polar region.
After about two months in space, the Chang’e 6 mission capsule has returned to Earth, carrying about two kilos of samples taken from the far side of the Moon. This is a first.
A historic mission
The mission Chang’e 6led by China, marks a turning point in lunar exploration by focusing on the far side of the Moon, a region that is still largely unexplored. While nine other previous lunar missions, including NASA’s famous Apollo missions and a few Soviet robotic probes, have returned lunar samples, all of these missions collected them from the near side of the Moon. This situation therefore left a significant gap in scientific understanding of the Moon, because the two sides have very different characteristics.
In detail, the near side of the Moon, which we see from Earth, is largely covered in “maria,” plains of solidified lava that form dark, smooth areas. In contrast, the far side of the Moon is heavily marked by impact craters, with almost no maria. This disparity has puzzled scientists for decades. Why are the two sides of the Moon so different? What are the geological conditions and historical events that led to these differences? Chang’e 6 was specifically designed to help answer these crucial questions.
This image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Chinese lander on June 7, 2024. Credits NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Mission details
The Chang’e 6 probe was launched from Hainan Island on May 3. On June 1, the lander separated from the orbiter and landed in the Apollo Crater, located in the South Pole-Aitken basin. This basin, one of the largest impact craters on the Moon, is considered a major site of interest to scientists because of its size and location in the south polar region. On June 6, an ascent vehicle then launched the collected samples (about two kilograms) from the lunar surface to dock them with the orbiter. The latter then started its return trip to Earth on June 21. Early Tuesday, the probe finally landed in Inner Mongoliaa region in the far north of China. The samples will now be transported to a laboratory in Beijing for examination. Note that Chang’e-6 also carried several scientific instruments, including a mineral spectral analysis instrument and a structure detector to analyze the soil beneath the Moon’s surface. The mission also included several international payloads, including a French radon detector, a negative ion analyzer developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), and an Italian laser corner reflector.
