The Chang’e 6 mission of China was a resounding success as a capsule filled with lunar soil and rock samples from the Moon’s far side landed back on Earth at 14:07 on June 25 (Beijing time).
The samples were collected by the Chang’e 6 lander after a 53-day mission, showcasing China’s growing capabilities in space and marking another victory in a series of lunar missions that began in 2007 and have been executed nearly flawlessly to date.
The Chang’e 6 module “parachuted” down to the Inner Mongolia region (China), carrying lunar soil and rock samples. (Source: CCTV).
“Chang’e 6 is the first mission in human history to bring samples back from the far side of the Moon“, said Long Xiao, a planetary geologist at the China University of Geosciences. “This is a major event for scientists around the world.”
The re-entry and landing process began around 13:20 that day, when mission controllers uploaded precise location data to the spacecraft – the re-entry capsule, which was then unlocked and separated at an altitude of about 5,000 km above the southern Atlantic Ocean.
The re-entry module entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 120 km, traveling at a speed of 11.2 km/s, carrying a valuable cargo of up to 2 kg of drill and excavation materials from the Moon’s oldest basin, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
CNSA Director Zhang Kejian stated that the Chang’e 6 mission “achieved perfect success.”
He noted: “Under the supervision of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, the re-entry module of the Chang’e 6 mission successfully landed in Siziwang Banner in the designated area.”
After on-site processing, the module will be transported by air to Beijing, where it will be opened and sampled for analysis and storage.
The Chang’e 6 module safely landed in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China at 14:07 on June 25.
According to Yue Zongyu, a geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, these samples are expected to answer “one of the most fundamental questions in lunar research, which is what geological processes are responsible for the differences between the light and dark sides.”
Yue is the lead author of a paper published on June 24 in The Innovation, a journal from Cell Press, discussing the landing site on the Moon and its significance for future research. He expressed his greatest hope that the Chang’e 6 samples contain some “impact remnants.”
“These are fragments created when smaller objects collide with the Moon, which could provide important information about the early impact history of the Moon,” he said.
“Once we obtain this information, it will not only clarify the role of early meteoritic impacts on the evolution of the Moon but will also have significant implications for analyzing the early impact history of the Solar System,” Yue added.
Namrata Goswami, an author and space policy expert at Arizona State University in the U.S., commented that the success of the mission demonstrates “that China has achieved and refined its ability to launch spacecraft into lunar orbit, land, collect samples autonomously, and return.”
Brad Joliff, a planetary scientist from Washington University, praised the Chang’e 6 mission as “fantastic” and “operating like clockwork.”
The moment the Chang’e 6 lander descended onto the surface of the Moon’s far side. (Source: CNSA)
Chang’e 6 is the second mission from China to the far side of the Moon. The Chang’e 4 lander/rover mission in 2019 was the first soft landing on the surface never visible from Earth, due to the tidal lock effect between our planet and the Moon.
The Chang’e 6 spacecraft launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, southern China, on May 3, and reached the Moon five days later. After waiting in orbit, the mission landed in a pre-selected area within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the Moon earlier this month.
After 48 hours of intensive surface sampling using drills and a robotic arm, the mission lifted off from the Moon, attached the re-entry module to lunar orbit, and returned to Earth on June 20.
