China's Chang'e-5 successfully lands on moon to collect samples
The Chang'e-5 probe successfully landed on the near side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Tuesday.
With the space probe's ascender on top, its lander made a touchdown at around 11:00 p.m. (Beijing Time), becoming China's third probe that has successfully made a soft landing on the moon. It has sent back footage of the moment it landed.
In the next two days, the lander will collect about two kilograms of lunar samples.
The Chang'e-5 probe includes a lander, ascender, orbiter, and returner. After the spacecraft entered the circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon, the lander-and-ascender pair split, descended, and landed at the planned area on the moon.
The lander will shovel some surface material and also drill a two-meter-deep hole and scoop up the soil from inside it, which will act like an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago and the top more closely reflecting the present day.
The samples will then be stored in the ascender, which will lift off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the returner and orbiter waiting in the lunar orbit. The unmanned rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit will also be the first such task conducted by China.
Then, at a proper time, the returner will separate from the orbiter and carry the samples back to Earth, which will finally land in North China's Inner Mongolia.
Once completed, the Chang'e-5 probe will become part of the world's first unmanned sample return mission from the moon in 40 years, and will make China the third country in the world to bring back lunar samples after the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.
The Chang'e-5 probe was launched on the early morning of November 24. It's one of China's most complicated and challenging space missions so far, which will contribute to scientific studies in fields such as the formation and evolution of the moon.
