The Associated Press reports that a Chinese spacecraft has made a successful landing on the moon’s far side in order to collect samples of rock and dirt. The mission’s objective is to gain additional knowledge about the materials on the moon’s lesser-known side.
The landing module arrived in Beijing at 6:23 a.m. on Sunday. According to the China National Space Administration, it touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a massive crater on the moon. The landing is the sixth mission in the Chang’e lunar exploration program, according to the article.
The Chang’e 5 spacecraft successfully collected samples from the moon’s near side in 2020. Many nations now compete with one another over the moon. Japan and India are investing in space exploration, even though the US leads.
China launched its own space station and frequently dispatched crew members to it.
China, a rising global force, plans to send a man to the moon before 2030, according to a story from The New York Post. If they succeed, they will be only the second country after the United States to do so.
The United States also hopes to return astronauts to the moon. That would mark the first footfall on Earth’s lunar neighbor in over half a century. NASA stated that the United States hopes to have someone on the moon in 2026, even if the deadline was originally earlier.
According to Reuters, Neil Melville-Kenney, an officer at the European Space Agency who collaborated with China on a Chang’e-6 payload, mentioned that landing on the moon’s far side is extremely challenging due to the lack of line-of-sight communications and the need to rely on numerous links in the chain to control or automate operations.
“Automation is very hard, especially at high latitudes, because there are long shadows, which are confusing for landers,” he stated.
According to reports, China’s Long March 5 rocket launched the Chang’e 6 probe on May 3. After traveling across the lunar region for about a week, it shortened its orbit in order to make landing preparations.
Missions to the far side of the moon are particularly difficult because it does not face Earth. Consequently, astronauts must maintain communication through a relay satellite.
