The first lunar backsampling by humans is highly anticipated

2024-05-10

At 17:27 on May 3rd, the Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe weighing over 8 tons was successfully launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China. The core mission of Chang'e-6 is to collect approximately 2 kilograms of samples from the far side of the moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis. The website of The Washington Post reported that if the Chang'e-6 mission succeeds, it will be the first time in the world that lunar backsampling has been achieved. "Scientists have high hopes for the Chang'e-6 mission," according to a report on the website of the British journal Nature on the 6th. If successful, the samples collected would be a "treasure trove," with the potential to change people's understanding of the history of the Earth, Moon, and early solar system. The mission also carried scientific payloads from countries such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Pakistan, reflecting China's efforts to promote international cooperation in space exploration. The 53 day lunar exploration has historical significance. According to a report by Nature, China has successfully launched the historic Chang'e-6 spacecraft. This 53 day lunar exploration will be the most complex and challenging mission China will undertake. The Guardian of the UK pointed out that Chang'e-6 will attempt to collect samples from the Aitken Basin in the South Pole of the Moon. This basin is the largest and oldest impact crater on the moon, located on the far side of the moon. China is the first country to bravely try. Washington University planetary scientist Bradley Joliff explained to Nature that due to Earth's tidal lock, the far side of the moon always faces away from us. The probe landing on the far side of the moon is much more complex than landing on the front side of the moon. Scientists can directly send signals to spacecraft landing on the front side of the moon, but back landing requires communication satellites to transmit relay signals around the moon. In March of this year, China successfully launched the Queqiao 2 relay satellite into lunar orbit, aiming to ensure communication between Chang'e-6 on the far side of the moon and Earth's ground stations. The Queqiao 2 satellite is equipped with a radio antenna with a diameter of 4.2 meters, which is the largest antenna of its kind used in deep space exploration, according to Nature. James Head, emeritus professor at Brown University in the United States, said that these samples can provide new insights into the origins and early history of the moon and solar system. The British New Scientist believes that these samples are crucial for understanding the history of the Moon, Earth, and the entire solar system. They help people study many asteroid fragments that collided with Earth and the Moon about 3.9 billion years ago, and explain why the rocks on the far side of the Moon are different from those on the front side. A key test of China's space capabilities, according to a report by CNN on the 3rd, the Chang'e-6 lunar exploration mission is China's most complex robotic mission to date and an important step forward in China's space program. The execution of the Chang'e-6 mission is also a crucial test of China's space capabilities. In recent years, China has made significant progress in lunar exploration. In 2004, China officially launched a lunar exploration project and named it "Chang'e Project" after the mythical goddess of the moon. In 2007, Chang'e-1 was successfully launched. In 2013, China's first unmanned lunar probe, Chang'e-3, successfully landed on the moon, making China the third country in the world to achieve lunar soft landing

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