China’s chang’e-6 returns to earth

China’s chang’e-6 returns to earth

China's chang'e-6 returns to earth

China’s chang’e-6 successfully returned to Earth, completing historic mission to collect samples from far side of moon.

On Tuesday, a re-entry module carrying the precious cargo parachuted into a landing zone in the rural Siziwang Banner region of Inner Mongolia. At about 2 p.m. after being released from Earth’s orbit by the uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe.

The team quickly spotted the module, which was discovered lying on grassland close to a Chinese flag. This mission marks an important milestone in China’s efforts to position itself as a leading space power.

The Chang’e-6 mission (Chinese moon goddess) took off from Hainan province along with (Pakistan icube Q) on May 3. It landed on June 2 on a side of the moon that is never seen from Earth.

The far side of moon is mainly made up of a thicker crust, and difficult to explore. Almost spent 2 days collecting 2kg of precious rocks and soil, with drill and robotic arms, which will be analyzed by Chinese scientists, later analyzed by international scientists.

The samples, collected from the moon’s far side, could provide info on the evolution of the moon, Earth, and the solar system. The mission’s success has generated significant interest in scientists.

As previously, US, the former soviet union as well as China have gathered samples from the near side of the moon but China is the first to bring material home from the far side

Yuqi Qian Planetary Geologist said that the Chang’e-6 mission aims to answer specific scientific questions. But lunar soil could be used for 3d printing bricks to construct research base. Additionally, scientists are developing cost-effective and practical methods to extract gases oxygen, hydrogen, and helium 3 from the soil. Which will further help in lunar exploration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *