China's Chang'e-6 capsule that landed on the far side of the moon after its May 3 launch returned its samples to Earth yesterday, completing its 53 day mission.
The roughly 300-kilogram Chang’e-6 reentry capsule separated from the mission service module 5,000 kilometers away from Earth. The capsule then skipped off the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean at 1:41 a.m. Eastern (0541 UTC) June 25 to decelerate, before making a final descent.
The reentry capsule—containing around 2 kilograms of lunar material drilled and scooped from Apollo crater on the far side of the moon—landed in the grasslands of Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia at around 2:07 a.m. Teams recovered the capsule shortly after.
China is justly proud that this is the first mission in human history to return samples from the far side, and from a practical standpoint, it required too much infrastructure to have been done back in the '60s - it was too different from the single goal of Apollo. It was a five spacecraft effort.
The mission was supported by the Queqiao-2 lunar relay satellite launched in March. Chang’e-6 then launched on a Long March 5 rocket from Wenchang spaceport May 3. The four-spacecraft stack entered lunar orbit just under five days later.
Its lander-ascent vehicle combination landed at 41.6385°S, 206.0148°E in Apollo crater within the vast and scientifically intriguing South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin June 1.
Long Xiao, a Planetary geoscientist for China University of Geosciences in Wuhan said in an interview after the landing, “I am excited about the future research scientists will conduct on these samples, which will provide valuable insights for addressing many significant lunar science questions. This is a major event for scientists worldwide.”
“The Moon’s geological features are highly uneven. The far side of the moon differs significantly from the near side,” says Long. “The far side, affected by the South Pole-Aitken basin impact and lacking extensive maria regions, suggests that its geological evolution process is different from that of the near side.”
The South Pole-Aitken (or SPA) basin is a gigantic impact crater, one of the largest and oldest impact features in the solar system. The impact which caused the basin is thought to have excavated material from the moon’s interior.
A topographic view of the SPA. From SciTech Daily 2018
China has already planned several additional lunar missions, including Chang’e-7 in 2026, and the more serious sounding Chang’e-8 in-situ resource utilization and technology test mission around 2028.
In addition, they plan a manned lunar landing by 2030 and what they're referring to as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) after that. Super heavy-lift launches in the early 2030s will construct ILRS.
Did they really do it? Is there any way to know besides taking their word for it?
ReplyDeleteHaven't they lied too many times to be taken at their word?
1) Yes
Delete2) LRO, for one
3) Who says we were taking their word?
You could say the same thing about our own government. I do believe we landed on the moon, but that's only because if we had faked it the Soviet KGB would have been all over it. I imagine the Chinese scientists will share their data from the samples with the wider scientific community at some point. And eventually there will be future missions from other nations to the far side of the moon to return samples. They wouldn't be able to fake it forever.
ReplyDeleteFrom the more philosophical standpoint, what could I say that would convince anyone? At some point, we're taking somebody else's word for everything we don't directly have knowledge of. I don't know how to answer the concern.
ReplyDeleteThere are photos of something they call Chang'e-6 after the landing, but how do we know that's what it is? There's a picture from NASA's LRO showing what they say is the lander, and that it's on the far side of the moon in that SPA basin. But it's a brighter spot in a bright spot. Do you believe that's what it is? What's an acceptable proof.
Same thing for having landed on the moon, I have no idea what you consider reasonable proof. I worked with a guy who said he worked on the lunar module at Grumman and worked on a Tiger Team during one of the later landings (this conversation was 30 years ago - I forget the details), but again, so what? I've been with people who worked on the Cape at the time, saw the launches, touched the hardware, met the astronauts. So?
We know we went to the moon because there's a reflector plate anyone can use. We know about all of the other US missions because non.gov people witnessed them with telescopes, both optical and radio.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about a data-sharing site.
These questions are philosophical horseplay. As SiG implies, to some there will never be enough evidence.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what such people will think when this latest batch of moon rocks are studied, shared, and cataloged by researchers around the world?
Surely, China didn't mount the effort just to have the samples (but not share them). Geophysicists around the world will be eagerly anticipate the opportunity. We'll hear the cry of complaints if China locks the rocks away.
Is there any news since April of this year about the return of samples from Mars?
ReplyDeleteNothing definitive. AFAIK, it's still open for proposals that was started in April and nothing definitive has happened, yet.
Delete