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Chang'e VI - Sample Return

The Chang'e-6 mission is tasked with collecting and returning samples from the moon's far side, the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. China has made another historic stride in its deep space endeavors on 03 May 2024, as the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket blasted off at 5:27 pm from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in South China’s tropical island of Hainan. The round trip of Chang'e-6 to the moon and back would take about 53 days, more than double the duration of its predecessor Chang’e-5, which returned samples from the near side of the moon in some 23 days.

Around 50 guests from 12 countries’ space agencies, including Pakistan, France, and Italy, as well as representatives from the United Nations and the European Space Agency, expressed willingness to seek cooperation with China in lunar and deep space exploration, as they gathered in Haikou, South China’s Hainan Province, to witness the launch of Chang’e-6 lunar probe, said the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on 03 May 2024. The Chang’e-6 mission would carry a number of international payloads to the Moon, including the European Space Agency's lunar surface ion analyzer, France's radon detection instrument, Italy's laser corner reflector, and a CubeSat from Pakistan.

The longer duration also indicates more complex flight stages – researchers have designed 11 stages for Chang’e-6, including launch and orbit insertion, lunar transfer, among others. The amount of Moon samples to be returned this time is also expected to be larger than the Chang’e-5 mission. It is expected to retrieve around 2,000 grams of lunar dust and rocks, an increase of some 270 grams than the last time. The Chang'e-6 mission aims to break new ground in lunar retrograde orbit design and control, intelligent sampling on the moon's far side, and ascent from the lunar surface, according to the CNSA. It would conduct an automated sample return from the moon's far side, along with scientific exploration of the landing area and international collaboration, the agency added.

After flying into orbit, it would head toward the Moon. Upon reaching its vicinity, the probe would brake to enter lunar orbit, and then fly around the orbit, during which time the lander and ascender combination would land on the far side of the moon. After completing the sampling, the ascender carrying the collected lunar soil would take off from the far side of the Moon to rendezvous and dock with the orbiter-returner combination, transfer the lunar samples to the returner, and then head back to Earth. It would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a semi-ballistic skip manner and land in Siziwang Banner, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Chang'e-6 would adopt the same sampling methods used by Chang'e-5, utilizing drilling and scooping to obtain samples from different layers and depths of the lunar surface, simultaneously conducting scientific exploration on the lunar far side. The location of the drilling is targeted at the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole, a crater formed some 4 billion years ago and believed to contain water ice. The Aitken Basin is one of the three major lunar landforms, and is the oldest and deepest impact crater basin on the moon, with significant scientific research value.

The Chang'e 6 spacecraft consisted of four components — an orbiter, lander, ascender and re-entry module. The Chang'e-6 mission is tasked with bringing back samples from the far side of the moon. To date, all 10 lunar sampling missions conducted by humans have taken place on the near side of the moon. The far side is generally older and contains the Aitken Basin, one of the three major lunar landforms, making it of significant scientific value, according to the CNSA.

Tidal forces on Earth slow the moon's rotation to the point where the same side always faces the planet. The other side, most of which is never visible from Earth, is the moon's far side. Although the far side had been extensively photographed by spacecraft, starting with a Soviet probe in 1959, no probe had ever touched down on it until China's Chang'e 4 mission soft-landed in the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin in January 2019.

China started its lunar program in 2004 and has launched five robotic probes since 2007. The most recent mission, Chang'e 5, landed on the moon in December 2020 and soon returned 1,731 grams of lunar rocks and soil back to Earth, achieving a historic accomplishment about 44 years after the last lunar substances were brought back from our nearest celestial neighbor.

Space program officials said that the substances brought back by the Chang'e 5 probe have helped scientists find out that there was volcanic activity on the moon's near side around 2 billion years ago, and materials from the far side would allow them to verify the hypothesis that volcanoes became inactive about 4 billion years ago on the far side.

In addition, the rover in the Chang'e 4 mission, Yutu 2, has been working there for nearly five years as the longest-operating lunar rover.

To ensure smooth communication between the spacecraft and Earth, China has developed the Queqiao-2 relay communication satellite, which is planned to be launched in the first half of 2024.

In addition, the administration has offered to carry a total of 10 kilograms of foreign equipment in the mission's lander and orbiter. After rounds of selection and talks, it decided that the Chang'e 6's lander would carry scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency, and a Pakistani payload would be mounted on the orbiter, according to the planner. Chang'e-6 mission would carry payloads and satellite projects from different countries and regions - France's DORN radon detection instrument, the European Space Agency's negative ion detector, Italy's laser retroreflector, and Pakistan's CubeSat.

China is also accelerating the development of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), hoping to attract more international partners to jointly expand the boundaries of human knowledge and contribute to the peaceful use of space and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, the CNSA added.

“The pre-selected landing area for the Chang'e-6 mission is located in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon, with a view to discovering and collecting lunar samples from different regions and ages to enhance human understanding of the moon,” the agency said. The CNSA added that the spacecraft – named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e – would carry “payloads and satellite projects from four countries,” including advanced sensors developed by France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Union’s space agency, ESA.

To facilitate contact between the Chang’e and its operators back on Earth, China’s newly developed Queqiao-2 relay communication satellite would also contribute to the mission. That project is set to be completed by the first half of 2024, the space agency said.

The Chinese spacecraft would aim to gather up to 2 kilograms of material from the lunar surface, which researchers would analyze for evidence of water ice and other compounds. China’s 2020 Chang’e-5 mission marked its first successful attempt to bring home samples from the Moon, putting Beijing among a small group of nations to do so, alongside the US and the former Soviet Union.

China successfully landed its second spacecraft - the Chang'e-6 unmanned probe - on the Moon's far side on 02 June 2024, when no other country has done it once. The feat marks a key milestone in achieving its mission to bring home, for the first time in human history, samples from an unexplored region from Earth's natural satellite, as stargazers around the world hold their breaths for this epic moment. The historic moment was also hailed by Western media. Chinese experts said while the US is setting unrealistic, grand goals but giving it a tight schedule in order to outpace China, China is steadily moving forward step by step, achieving concrete and rich results.

The lander-ascender combination of the Chang'e-6 probe, after traveling in orbit for some 30 days since its May 3 launch, touched down at the designated landing area at 6:23 am (Beijing Time) in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. The powered descent began at 6:09 am. The main engine with variable thrust was ignited, and the combination quickly adjusted its attitude and gradually approached the lunar surface.

Soft landing on the Moon has always been a key hurdle for countries around the world in their lunar explorations. Last August, India became the fourth country following the US, the former Soviet Union and China to conquer the feat with its Chandrayaan-3 probe, after its first such attempt failed in 2019. Japan also made it to the Moon in January this year, but its SLIM lander overturned during the process of landing, arriving upside-down on the lunar surface which put the solar panels in shadow and soon resulting in battery shortage for the lander.

Landing on the far side of the Moon is even more challenging, or as some have described it, the moment where the chance of failure is the highest. This is because the far side is always facing away from the Earth and is marked by numerous deep and shadowy craters, making it difficult to have direct communications and posing high demand for robotic landing operations, experts said. "It's just like landing a small truck in the midst of towering mountains and ridges, where every step must be taken seriously," Xinhua News Agency said.

Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times that the smooth soft landing signaled China's competent lunar landing techniques, with the Queqiao-2 relay satellite providing sufficient communication efficiency and transmission rates, managing to bridge the communication link when ground control cannot directly observe the status of the lunar rover. Despite having communication relays on the far side, however, the transmission signals still had time delays, which required the Chang'e-6 probe adjusting its position and making obstacle avoidances all by itself. Such real-time responses need a highly intelligent and automated system, Wang said.

Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm was extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. Due to the moon's obstruction, the Earth-moon communication window period on the far side of the moon, even with the help of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite service, is still shorter than that on the near side. Therefore, the sampling time of Chang'e-6 will be reduced to only 14 hours, compared with the 22 hours used by its predecessor Chang'e-5, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The historic moment made by the Chang'e-6 mission has made headlines in multiple mainstream Western media outlets. The AP said the Chang'e-6 could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. The AP described the moon program as "part of a growing rivalry with the US - still the leader in space exploration - and others." Reuters also reported that "the landing elevates China's space power status in a global rush to the moon," where countries including the US are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

The US also has its own ambitious moon program called the Artemis. The program envisions a crewed moon landing by late 2026, relying heavily on private companies. However, the program has met several major delays that put a question mark on whether it could meet its grand goals. Following a successful uncrewed test flight in late 2022, NASA had planned to launch a crewed lunar flyby mission called Artemis II in November 2024. In a press briefing in January, NASA officials revealed that the mission would be delayed until September 2025. Artemis III - the program's first crewed lunar landing - has slipped as well, pushed back to September 2026, according to publications.

The US' moon program is featured by is its grandiose goals, Wang said. The expert took an example of the Gateway Space Station around the moon by NASA and using it as a base for manned lunar exploration, "possibly even venturing into deeper space from this point." However, it seems contradictory that while pursuing such grandiose goals, the US has set a tight schedule for its technical research and development, as the US government is determined to "being faster than China," Wang noted.

The expert further noted that while the US' manned lunar landing aims to make a revolutionary leap from the Apollo program decades ago, it set an ambitious deadline around 2026, which will inevitably pose significant technical risks, highlighting the uncertainty in the current US lunar exploration efforts. In contrast, China's lunar exploration project has been built step by step, relying on the footsteps of previous missions. It would be a natural outcome if China could land its taikonauts on the moon by 2030, Wang believes.

Wang noted that China is steadily moving forward, leaving clear footprints and achieving fruitful results. "If Chang'e-6 successfully returns with samples from the moon's far side, these samples will provide key information for understanding the moon's origins, geological changes, and even some information about the early formation of the universe." With China's continuous success in deep space exploration, the prospects for international cooperation are expanding, observers said. China's high success rate in deep space exploration, particularly lunar missions, demonstrates its reliability and safety in operating unmanned spacecraft, making it an ideal partner for collaboration.

In the current era of increased geopolitical tensions, the Chang'e 6 mission is "a rare example of constructive international collaboration," Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University in Australia was quoted as saying in The Conversation. The Chang'e-6 mission has brought up four international payloads to the Moon, including the European Space Agency's lunar surface ion composition analyzer, France's radon detection instrument, Italy's laser corner reflector, and a CubeSat from Pakistan, the CNSA revealed to the Global Times. Now the payloads will begin conducting scientific research as planned, the administration said.

China’s unmanned Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully completed its mission and its reentry module has safely returned to Earth, bringing back the first ever soil samples from the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on 25 June 2024. The module carrying the samples parachuted down to Earth and landed in a designated zone in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region. Once all ground checks are completed, the module will be airlifted to Beijing, where it will be opened and the samples retrieved.

CNSA chief Zhang Kejian has declared that the Chang’e-6 lunar exploration “has been a complete success.” Chinese President Xi Jinping has also hailed the mission as a “landmark achievement in building a strong country in space, and science and technology.” The unmanned spacecraft, which marked the sixth launch in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, initially set out on May 3. Its predecessor, the Chang’e 5, also traveled to the surface of the Moon in 2020 and brought back samples from its near side.