Chang'e V / VI - Sample Return
Chang'e-V is expected to demonstrate unmanned lunar soft landing and lunar soil automatic sample return to earth for analysis. Subsequently China plans to launch a Automated Lunar Rover with sample return capability between 2017 and 2020. The spacecraft apparently will land itself with both an Automatic Sample Return capability but also a Lunar rover sample retrieval capability. It will be launched on the new Long March-5E medium heavy weight lift booster now in development allowing for a much heavier spacecraft mass.
On the third stage, China will launch between 2017 and 2020 with the common Lander stage the small capsule and moon robot to collect the needed samples and return safely, research the samples and provide the data for the manned moon-landing and the location of China's moon base. It will lay scientific facilities, collect research samples and send lunar images back to Earth. Chang’e-V and its ASR [Automatic Samples Return] mission may in part be based on or be a part of a back-up to Change-3 updated Lander stage with interchangeable payloads for its mission requirements after a successful Chang’e-3 mission. Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 may in fact become the ASR missions while Chang’e-3 and Chang’e-4 may become lunar rover missions backing up one another again mimicking Soviet practices.
China launched the unmanned Chang'e 5 Test 1 mission (CE5-T1) spacecraft October 24, 2014 that for the first time in the country's space program will fly around the moon and return to Earth. The unnamed probe took off from the Xichang satellite launch center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. The eight-day program was meant to test technology that will be used in a planned 2017 mission that aims to gather samples from the moon's surface. The official Xinhua news agency said the latest mission will "obtain experimental data and validate re-entry technologies."
On its return, the test spacecraft approached the terrestrial atmosphere at a velocity of nearly 11.2 kilometers per second and rebound to slow down before re-entering the atmosphere. It will land in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The mission is to obtain experimental data and validate re-entry technologies such as guidance, navigation and control, heat shield and trajectory design for a future touch-down on the moon by Chang'e-5, which is expected to be sent to the moon, collect samples and return to Earth in 2017. It is the first time China has conducted a test involving a half-orbiter around the moon at a height of 380,000 kilometers before having the spacecraft return to Earth. The test orbiter is a precursor to the last phase of a three-step moon probe project, a lunar sample return mission.
China planned to launch lunar probe Chang'e 5 in 2017, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. "The development of Chang'e 5 is proceeding smoothly," said the administration's spokesman Wu Zhijian at a press conference on December 16, 2013. The just-concluded Chang'e 3 mission marked completion of the second phase of the country's lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth. The lunar program will enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning, which will include Chang'e 5 and 6 missions, according to Wu. "The program's third phase will be more difficult because many breakthroughs must be made in key technologies such as moon surface takeoff, sampling encapsulation, rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, and high-speed Earth reentry, which are all new to China," Wu said. As the backup probe of Chang'e 3, Chang'e 4 will be adapted to verify technologies for Chang'e 5, according to Wu. The third and final stage of the unmanned missions to sample the lunar surface is expected to be completed by 2020, using the Chang'e-5 and 6 lunar probes, which will be able to return samples to Earth, said Wu.
"The completion of the third phase will not mean an end of China's lunar probe program," Wu said. "It should be a new starting point." Wu, however, said follow-up plans for lunar exploration after the third phase is completed were still being studied.
By early 2016 engineers at the China Academy of Space Technology had begun to assemble the Chang'e-5 probe, the third step in China's unmanned lunar exploration effort aimed at landing on the moon and bringing back samples in the next year or so. Chang'e-5, which the academy says is the country's most sophisticated spacecraft so far, has four modules - an orbiter, lander, ascender and returner. It will use a robotic arm to take samples of lunar soil.
China began its lunar exploration program, named for the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, in 2004. Since then, three probes have been launched. The Chang'e-3 soft-landed on the moon in December 2013, and its rover roamed the lunar surface and performed a host of research tasks. China also plans to land the Chang'e-4 on the far side of the moon, which will make it the first nation to do so. That mission was set for around 2018.
On November 24, 2020, at 4:30 Beijing time, the Chang'e-5 reentry vehicle was successfully launched from the Wenchang cosmodrome on Hainan Island. According to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the launch was carried out using the Changzheng-5 launch vehicle (CZ-5, Long March-5, Long March 5). The statement states that Chang'e 5 will be one of the most difficult and complex space missions ever undertaken by China."
"In addition, it will be the first mission in the world in the last 40 years to return lunar samples to Earth. The results of the mission will contribute to further research on the evolution of the Moon," the corporation said in a statement. The Chang'e-5 lunar vehicle weighs 8.2 tons and consists of four modules designed to perform tasks on staying in orbit, landing, takeoff and return to Earth.
China successfully landed its unmanned Chang'e 5 probe on the surface of the moon on 01 December 2020, according to Chinese state media. The probe "successfully landed on the moon in the pre-selected landing area," the official China News Service reported, citing space officials. Its ascender module lifted off from the lunar surface shortly after 1500 GMT 03 Decembe 2020 and was to connect with its return vehicle in lunar orbit and transfer the samples to the capsule. Chang'e 5's lander module, which remained on the Moon, is equipped to both scoop samples from the surface and drill 2 metres to retrieve materials that could provide clues to the history of the Moon. While retrieving samples was its main task, the lander is also equipped to extensively photograph the area surrounding its landing site, map conditions below the surface with ground penetrating radar, and analyse the lunar soil for minerals and water content.
When the probe left the Moon two days later, that marked the first time that China had achieved takeoff from an extraterrestrial body. The module then went through the delicate operation of linking up in lunar orbit with the part of the spacecraft that brought the samples back to Earth. Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang’e-5 space probe landed on 17 December 2020 in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region. The return capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 120km (75 miles). When it was about 10km above land, a parachute opened and it landed smoothly, after which a search team recovered it. With this mission, China became only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 2020, the Chang'e-5 automatic interplanetary station delivered new samples of lunar rocks to Earth. The Chinese mission took samples for the first time on the far side of the moon. After analyzes, scientists were surprised to find that the age of the basalts of the marginal part of the Ocean of Storms, where the apparatus landed, is about two billion years. This did not fit in with the idea that the Moon completely cooled down 1-1.5 billion years after its formation. Petrographic observations confirmed that after 2.5 billion years, active volcanism continued on its surface. Pyroclastic glass was found in the samples, which is formed during explosive eruptions.
There was no explanation for this. Unlike the Earth, in the depths of which even now, 4.5 billion years after its formation, tectonic-magmatic processes continue, the Moon was traditionally considered a geologically dead body. The internal heat fueling lunar volcanism must have disappeared long before these eruptions occurred. Chinese scientists conducted a comparative analysis of archival and newly delivered samples and found that younger basalts are enriched in calcium oxide and titanium dioxide compared to older ones. Experiments have shown that these compounds significantly reduce the melting point of the melt.
Based on the data obtained, the authors constructed a slow cooling hypothesis, according to which the conditions for magma formation in the interior of the Moon persisted for one billion years longer than previously thought. "We found that the igneous rocks collected by Chang'e-5 were formed at the same depth as the Apollo samples," lead author Dr. Bing Su of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a press release . “But over the period from three to two billion years ago, temperatures there have gradually decreased by about 80 degrees.”
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