(Bloomberg) -- China launched the first spacecraft to collect samples from the moon’s far side and return them to Earth, solidifying the nation’s position as the main competitor to the US in the race to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface.
A Long March-5 rocket carrying the uncrewed Chang’e-6 took off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in the southern province of Hainan late Friday afternoon, state media reported.
Chang’e-6 will attempt to land within the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Within 48 hours of landing, a robotic arm will begin gathering rocks and soil from the lunar surface and a drill will bore into the ground. The mission is projected to last about 53 days.
“First-hand, direct samples from the moon’s far side are essential to giving us a deeper understanding of the characteristics and differences of the two sides of the moon, and to revealing the secrets of the moon,” said Zeng Xingguo, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
“The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking,” Zeng said.
China in 2019 became the first and only country to land on the far side with the Chang’e-4. The following year, China’s Chang’e-5 returned samples from the moon’s near side for the first time since the end of NASA’s Apollo program in the early 1970s.
South Pole
Beijing wants to send its first crewed mission to the moon before 2030, with state media reporting on April 24 that work is proceeding “smoothly” toward that goal.
While the Apollo astronauts explored areas relatively near the lunar equator, the south pole is the focus for national space programs seeking to determine the existence of sufficient deposits of water ice that would enable the production of fuel and oxygen. That could facilitate a long-term human presence on the moon.
India landed its first lunar probe near the south pole last August, shortly after the failure of a Russian spacecraft that was supposed to touch down in the area.
NASA is targeting the region for a mission to return US astronauts to the moon, planned for 2026, and is working with companies such as Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Read More: Musk and Bezos Are Racing to Bring Americans Back to the Moon
In February, a spacecraft from Houston-based Intuitive Machines Inc. touched down in the polar region with the goal of providing NASA with new information that could help the agency send astronauts to the area.
The US is concerned that China may attempt to prevent others from accessing resources there, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on April 30.
“We think that there is water there, and if there’s water, then there’s rocket fuel,” he said. “And that’s one reason we’re going to the south pole of the moon.”
China, which agreed in 2021 to cooperate with Russia on a base called the International Lunar Research Station near the south pole, wants Chang’e-6 to help pave the way for the station’s construction, according to Chinese state media.
A “basic version” of the ILRS “centered around the lunar south pole” will be completed by 2035, state media reported on April 25.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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2024-05-03 10:31:40Z
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