China is back on the Moon with a robotic mission, Chang’e 6, with the aim of bringing back to Earth for the first time samples from the far side of the Moon, still little known and very interesting both from a scientific and as the site of future human bases.
Yesterday Monday 3 June the Chinese mission touched the ground in Apollo crater, located in the South Pole-Aitken basin, with a diameter of approximately 2,500 kilometers and generated by the impact of a meteorite. It should bring back 2kg of lunar rocks and soil from the far side.
It is the sixth time China has touched lunar soil in 17 years, since its first Chang’e 1 mission landed on the moon in October 2007. It is also one of five countries to have landed on the moon, after the United States, Russia, India and Japan. These were joined in February 2024 by the first lander launched by a private company, the Odysseus of the Texan company Intuitive Machine. The Chang’e 6 mission also marks a new stage in China’s space program, which includes two more robotic missions in 2026 and 2028 and the first crewed mission by 2030.
After being the first to reach the far side of the Moon at the end of 2018, with the Chang’e 4 mission and the Queqiao satellite that gave it the possibility of communicating from that lunar hemisphere, China is now preparing to collect samples of the soil in this little explored area. The Queqiao-2 satellite, launched in March 2024, allows communications with the Earth, thanks to its parabolic antenna with a diameter of 4.2 meters.
Launched on May 3, 2024, the Chang’e 6 mission has a total duration of 53 days. Consequently, the time required to collect lunar samples is two days, at least two kilos according to the programs of the Chinese space agency CNSA. While a robotic arm will collect samples on the surface, a drill will drill into the lunar soil to a depth of two meters. Then the ascent module will transport them to the reentry module which is located in lunar orbit and which will take them to Earth, where reentry is expected around June 25th.
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