BEIJING (AP) – A Chinese moon capsule returned to Earth on Thursday with the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 40 years.
The Chang’e 5 probe capsule landed in the Siziwang district of the Inner Mongolia region, state media reported shortly after 2 a.m. (1800 GMT).
The capsule previously separated from its orbiter module and bounced off Earth’s atmosphere to slow its speed before passing through it and drifting to the ground on parachutes.
Two of the four modules of the Chang’e 5 landed 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 successful mission was the latest breakthrough for China’s increasingly ambitious space program, which includes a robotic mission to Mars and plans for a permanent orbiting space station.
Recovery crews had prepared helicopters and all-terrain vehicles to strike the house on signals from the lunar spacecraft and locate it in the darkness that envelops the vast snow-covered area of far north China, long used as a landing site for crew-operated Chinese spaceships. from Shenzhou. .
The spacecraft’s return marked the first time scientists have obtained new samples of lunar rocks since the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 robotic probe in 1976.
The newly collected rocks are believed to be billions of years younger than those previously obtained by the US and the former Soviet Union, and offer new insights into the history of the moon and other bodies in the 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 of lunar samples that American astronauts brought back between 1969 and 1972, they will be analyzed for age and composition and are expected to be shared with other countries.
The age of the samples will help fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between about 1 billion and three billion years ago, said Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in Washington University. the US city of St. Louis, said in an email. They could also provide clues about the availability of economically useful resources on the Moon, such as concentrated hydrogen and oxygen, Jolliff said.
“These monsters will be a treasure trove!” Jolliff said. “My hat is off to our Chinese colleagues for carrying out a very difficult mission; the science resulting from the analysis of the returned samples will be a legacy that will last many, many years, and hopefully the international community of scientists will be involved. “
Chang’e 5 flew away from a launch site in China’s southern Hainan province on Nov. 23 and appeared to have completed its highly technically advanced mission without a hitch.
It was China’s third successful moon landing, but the only one to lift off the moon 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.
In 2003, China became the third country to send an astronaut into orbit on its own, after the Soviet Union and the United States and their space program had been more cautious than the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s, which became characterized by deaths and failed launches. By taking step-by-step steps, China seems on the road to building a program that can support steady progress.
“They’ve read and admired the Apollo playbook (US lunar program), but they’ve also learned the format,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on the Chinese space program at the US Naval War College. “It’s better to go slow and build an infrastructure for the future than to go fast and end up with little to keep going.”
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.