BEIJING (AP) – Chinese ground crews are poised for the return of a lunar probe that will bring back the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 40 years.
The Chang’e probe is expected to land in the Siziwang district of the vast Inner Mongolia region late Wednesday or early Thursday. It fired its engines on Wednesday to put it on course before the orbiter separates from the return vehicle, with all systems working as expected, the China National Space Administration said.
The return vehicle’s recovery will be complicated by its small size, darkness and heavy snowfall, state media reported. According to plans, it must perform an initial bounce of Earth’s atmosphere to slow its speed before passing through and drifting down on parachutes, making it difficult to calculate exactly where it will land, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted. Bian Hancheng, a leader of the recovery team, as said.
The state broadcaster CCTV showed four military helicopters on a base on the snow-covered grasslands on Wednesday morning. Crews in vehicles on the ground will also try to tune signals. Although vast in size, it is relatively familiar due to its use as a landing site for Chinese Shenzhou crewed spaceships.
Chang’e 5 sat on the moon on December 1 and collected about 2 kilograms of samples by scooping them off the surface and drilling 2 meters into the moon’s crust. The samples were placed in a sealed container that was returned to the return module by an ascending vehicle.
The lander floated under a Chinese flag and ceased functioning shortly after being used as a launch pad for the ascender, which was ejected from the orbiter after transferring the samples and came to rest on the surface of the moon.
The spacecraft’s return marks the first time that scientists have obtained new samples of lunar rocks since the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 robotic probe in 1976.
Chang’e 5 was launched on Nov. 23 from a launch site in China’s southern Hainan province on a mission expected to last 23 days.
It marks China’s third successful moon landing, but the only one to take off again. Its predecessor, Chang’e 4, became the first probe to land on the little-explored far side of the Moon and continues to return data on conditions that could affect humans’ future extended stay on the Moon.
The moon has been a particular focus of the Chinese space program, which says it plans to land humans there and possibly build a permanent base. No timeline or other details have been disclosed.
China has also joined the effort to explore Mars. In July, it launched the Tianwen 1 probe, which carried a lander and robotic rover to search for water.
China’s space program has been more cautious than the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s, which was characterized by fatalities and launch failures.
In 2003, China became the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States to independently send an astronaut into orbit.
The latest flight includes collaboration with the European Space Agency, which helps track the mission. Amid concerns about the secrecy of China’s space program and close military ties, the US is banning NASA-CNSA cooperation unless Congress gives its approval. That has prevented China from participating in the International Space Station, something it has tried to offset with the launch of an experimental space station and plans to complete a permanent outpost in orbit within the next two years.
The rocks and debris brought back by Chang’e 5 are believed to be billions of years younger than those obtained by the US and the former Soviet Union, offering new insights into the history of the moon and other bodies in the world. solar system.
They come from a part of the moon known as the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, near a place called the Mons Rumker that was believed to be volcanic in ancient times.
Like the 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of lunar samples that American astronauts brought with them between 1969 and 1972, they will be analyzed for age and composition and likely shared with other countries.
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This story has been corrected to show that the mission is the first to return moon rocks in more than 40 years, instead of 45.