Millions of IPs Create Science Popularization and Technological Talents Talk About Strengthening the Country丨A Different Journey to the Moon

Humans have conducted many explorations on the moon, the only natural satellite of the Earth. Compared with the front side of the moon, landing on the back side of the moon faces more complex challenges. Since the probe on the back side of the moon cannot directly receive signals from the earth, humans have been unable to land a probe on the back side of the moon for nearly 60 years. This situation was completely changed until the appearance of Chang'e 4.

At 10:26 on January 3, 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe autonomously landed in the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon, achieving the first soft landing of a human probe on the far side of the moon. At 01:59 on December 17, 2020, the Chang'e-5 returner successfully landed in the designated area of ​​Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, successfully completing China's first extraterrestrial sampling and return mission. With the success of these two missions, Chinese astronauts have set their sights on a more ambitious goal - achieving sampling and return on the far side of the moon. This important task falls on the shoulders of Chang'e-6.

At 17:27 on May 3, 2024, Chang'e-6 was successfully launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China, and then accurately entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and the launch mission was a complete success. In the following days, Chang'e-6 underwent a series of complex maneuvers, and finally at 6:23 on June 2, the Chang'e-6 lander and ascender combination, supported by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, successfully landed in the pre-selected landing area of ​​the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the back of the moon.

The Chang'e-6 lander carried a variety of instruments including a landing camera, a panoramic camera, a lunar soil structure detector and a lunar mineral spectrometer. During and after the landing, these instruments worked normally as planned, carrying out scientific exploration tasks such as the detection and research of lunar surface morphology and mineral composition, and the detection of lunar shallow structure.

During its short stay, Chang'e-6 successfully completed intelligent rapid sampling in the landing area and stored the samples on the far side of the moon in a storage device carried by the ascender. During the sampling process, Chang'e-6 collected samples by drilling with a drill and by using a robotic arm. After completing the sampling on the lunar surface, the five-star red flag carried by the Chang'e-6 lander was successfully unfolded on the far side of the moon. This is the first time that China has independently and dynamically displayed the national flag on the far side of the moon.

At 7:38 a.m. on June 4, the Chang'e-6 ascender took off from the far side of the moon carrying lunar samples and successfully entered the planned lunar orbit. The first human sampling mission on the far side of the moon was successfully completed, and Chang'e-6 embarked on a journey back to Earth with the samples.

This is the world's first sampling and takeoff from the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-6 mission has laid the foundation for future lunar development. The implementation of the Chang'e-6 mission has not only set a new record for China's lunar exploration project, but will also have a far-reaching impact on the global aerospace field. The precious lunar samples collected by Chang'e-6 will provide humans with more valuable data and information about the moon, and are expected to deepen human research on the origin and evolution of the moon.

Author: Ju Qiang, China Science and Technology Press

Review expert: Zhu Liyuan, senior editor of Southern Weekend