Chang’e-6: Moon samples collected and launched into lunar orbit

HELSINKI – Material from the far side of the moon has begun its journey to Earth after Chinese spacecraft collected samples and launched them into lunar orbit.

The Chang’e-6 launch vehicle lifted off from the mission landing pad in Apollo Crater at 7:38 p.m. June 3 Eastern (2338 UTC), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. The lander is now tracking the Chang’e-6 orbiter in a low retrograde lunar orbit.

Chang’e-6 landed on the far side of the moon late on June 1 and began collecting rock and regolith samples with a scoop and drill soon after. Up to 2000 grams were then loaded into the adhesive.

“The packaging work has been completed in a normal state and the whole process is smooth,” Li Xiaoyu, an engineer from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), told CCTV.

The climbing vehicle took off and achieved autonomous positioning and attitude determination with the help of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite.

The successful sampler and ascent operations are essential steps in the complex, four-spacecraft mission to deliver unique and scientifically valuable samples of the far side of the Moon to Earth.

The ascent vehicle is expected to rendezvous and dock with the mission’s service module in the next two days. Both spacecraft will travel at about 1.6 kilometers per second during the maneuvers.

After connection, the sample canisters will then be transferred to a reentry module via an automated process. The ascent vehicle will then be jettisoned while the service module waits a calculated time to begin its return to Earth. This is expected around June 20-21, with the re-entry module landing in Inner Mongolia around June 25, Beijing time.

China has not released timetables for the milestones, but the mission is proceeding in a similar fashion to the Chang’e-5 sample return mission near 2020. Chinese space officials have previously indicated that the mission will last 53 days.

Boost for lunar and deep space plans

The launch from the lunar surface and the expected rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit will be practical experience for China’s plan to put astronauts on the moon and return them safely to Earth before 2030. The sampling will be also useful for deep space efforts such as the upcoming Tianwen-2 asteroid and comet mission. China also plans to launch the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission around 2030.

“The mission is quite difficult,” Ge Ping, Chang’e-6 spokesman and deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center under CNSA, told CCTV about Chang’e-6. “We launched the Queqiao-2 relay satellite in the early stages, adopted technologies for intelligent rapid sampling and take-off and ascent from the lunar surface, which have laid a solid foundation for technologies such as soft landing and retrieval of samples in extraterrestrial bodies. ”

Queqiao-2 launched in March and entered a specialized lunar orbit. From there it facilitates communication with the far side of the Moon, which is always facing Earth.

Chang’e-6 — a roughly 8.2-ton stack of four spacecraft — launched on May 3 from the Wenchang Spaceport. It entered lunar orbit about 4.5 days later. The approximately 3.2-ton mission plane successfully landed on the Moon at 6:23 p.m. ET on June 1. The lander targeted a southern portion of Apollo, a mid-latitude crater within the vast and scientifically intriguing South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA). .