The Chang’e 6 spacecraft is not equipped with heaters to survive the long, cold lunar nights.
The Chang’e 6 Mission by China successfully returned the first samples from the far side of the Moon to Earth. The Chang’e 6 spacecraft was launched on May 3. The mission includes four modules: an orbiter, a lander, a small rocket, and a reentry capsule. The lander touched down in the Apollo crater on June 1, with the primary mission of collecting and drilling samples from the far side of the Moon and placing them on the rocket for launch into orbit. The samples returned to Earth on June 25, landing as planned in Inner Mongolia, according to Space.
The Chang’e 6 lander on the far side of the Moon. (Photo: CNSA).
Meanwhile, the Chang’e 6 lander remains on the Moon. The vehicle is equipped with various instruments, including a panoramic camera and a small rover. Recent information regarding the fate of the lander has come from the French space agency CNES, which designed the radon gas detector named DORN for the mission. “As planned, DORN ceased operations shortly before the rocket launched from the lunar surface while the lander remained silent,” CNES reported.
The rocket’s launch is likely to have caused damage to the lander, although the vehicle may still have recorded the event. Therefore, all operations, including the autonomous deployment of the rover and imaging of the lander, were completed before the rocket’s launch, including activating another French device specifically designed to detect previously unobserved charged particles on the lunar surface.
Any activities conducted after the rocket’s launch would stop as night fell over the Apollo crater. Unlike the Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 landers, which are still operational in the bright and dark regions of the Moon, the Chang’e 6 did not carry the necessary radioactive heating units for long-term operations, which would help the spacecraft survive the extremely cold temperatures during the lunar night. Night in the Apollo crater began on June 11, with sunlight returning on June 26.
Meanwhile, the rocket that carried the samples from the Moon to the orbiter has also ceased operations. Chinese space authorities have not disclosed the fate of the rocket. It is likely that it has crashed onto the Moon after docking with the orbiter and transferring the samples. The lack of signals from the rocket suggests it was intended to collide with the Moon.
China seems to have implemented a similar sample collection process to the Chang’e 5 mission, which returned samples from the Moon’s near side at the end of 2020. The reentry capsule and its contents were transported to Beijing on June 26. The samples will be quickly transferred to a specialized facility for storage, analysis, and distribution.
Meanwhile, the relay satellite Queqiao 2, which aids in coordinating the sampling mission on the far side, will continue to orbit the Moon. This satellite will support the ongoing Chang’e 4 mission and the upcoming Chang’e 7 mission targeting the Moon’s south pole in 2026.
