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China Moon Space

China Successfully Lands Probe on the Moon's Far Side, Starts Collecting Samples (cnn.com) 51

China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully lands on far side of the moon China's moon probe has "successfully touched down on the far side of the moon," CNN reports, in "a significant step for the ambitious mission that could advance the country's aspirations of putting astronauts on the moon" by 2030.

The mission's ultimate goal is to return to Earth the first samples from the moon's far side, CNN reports. And China's lunar lander "is now expected to use a drill and a mechanical arm to gather up to 2 kilograms of moon dust and rocks from the basin, a crater formed some 4 billion years ago." To complete its mission, the lander will need to robotically stow those samples in an ascent vehicle that made the landing with it. The ascent vehicle will then return to lunar orbit, where it will dock with and transfer the samples to a re-entry capsule, according to mission information provided by the China National Space Administration. The re-entry capsule and orbiter will then travel back to Earth's orbit and separate, allowing the re-entry capsule to make its expected return later this month to the Siziwang Banner Landing Site in China's rural Inner Mongolia region.
The mission began with its launch on May 3 — and is expected to last 53 days. The landing marks the second time a mission has successfully reached the far side of the moon. China first completed that historic feat in 2019 with its Chang'e-4 probe... The technically complex mission is made more challenging due to where it is being conducted. The far side of the moon is out of range of normal communications, which means Chang'e-6 must also rely on a satellite that was launched into lunar orbit in March, the Queqiao-2.
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China Successfully Lands Probe on the Moon's Far Side, Starts Collecting Samples

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  • Good job (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @02:40AM (#64517039) Journal
    The more scientific research done by the world, the better.
    • Pink Floyd will be happy with the advertising.
    • Especially welcome as world scientists have no samples at all from the far side. These will be the first, and thus one of most valuable additions to lunar science since the 1970s.

  • I'm all for this experiment since it's worth checking and its good as an exercise/rehearsal, but why would the samples be expected to be any different than the near-side? The far side of the moon has no idea it's the far side.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      All the rocks/dust falling on it certainly know it is.
    • Re:Lunar far side (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @04:11AM (#64517119) Homepage Journal

      The far side is more exposed to hits from rocks falling into the Earth/Lunar gravity well. As such it is much more rugged, with few of the large flat "seas" that the near side has.

      That means there are more permanently shaded areas where the composition of rocks will be different, and there might be some ice.

      It's also an impressive technical feat because it is harder to land there. As well as being more difficult terrain, it requires comms satellites in Lunar orbit to bounce signals around to the far side. The automated landing system needs to be able to cope with more uneven terrain, more boulders, and areas of permanent shade.

      It seems that NASA is also worried that China is doing a sample return mission, because they have recently downgraded their Mars sample return project from maximum scientific benefit to "just get something, anything, back first". They seem to think that China may try to beat them to it with a simpler sample return mission that grabs a small amount of material from the easiest possible location, and they are probably right.

      • The moon actually provides significant protection to the earth, so there may be interesting meteor debris there.
      • It seems that NASA is also worried that China is doing a sample return mission, because they have recently downgraded their Mars sample return project from maximum scientific benefit to "just get something, anything, back first".

        That's probably more of an issue with JPL blowing their budget all the time. The samples were originally supposed to be collected by Curiosity. That went 2x over budget and had delays. They got it on Perseverance. But there's still no concrete plan for picking up the samples. Every

    • by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @04:13AM (#64517123)
      The rocks on the far side actually hide a secret. See this documentary [imdb.com] for more information.
    • Re:Lunar far side (Score:5, Informative)

      by Geoffrey.landis ( 926948 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @09:10AM (#64517471) Homepage

      I'm all for this experiment since it's worth checking and its good as an exercise/rehearsal, but why would the samples be expected to be any different than the near-side? The far side of the moon has no idea it's the far side.

      Near side and far side in fact are strikingly different. The near side is dominated by the many dark maria, which are nearly absent on the far side.

      You could proposed that the far side is like the highlands areas of the near side, the areas that aren't maria, but that's still a hypothesis. If near side and far side are so very different in the large-scale geomorphology, they may be different in other ways, too.

    • I'm all for this experiment since it's worth checking and its good as an exercise/rehearsal, but why would the samples be expected to be any different than the near-side? The far side of the moon has no idea it's the far side.

      Since the Moon is tidally-locked to the Earth, the far side does not get exposed to oxygen which escapes from Earth's atmosphere. So the cheese on the far side does not oxidize and this is expected to be of much higher quality than that on the near side.

    • We have known since the first space probe went behind the Moon that the far side looks very different. A side that looks very different likely should be sampled to see if there are chemical and geological differences as well. And now, with recent probes that can gather data from IR spectrometry, neutron emission analysis, and other remote sensing technologies, we know it is chemically different as well. BTW - the far side does "know" it is the far side. It has been subjected to a very different history of c

  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @04:02AM (#64517117)

    We have milk, cookies, and front seat drivers.

    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/... [pinterest.com]

    On a related note, NASA is still awaiting confirmation from the BBC regarding China reaching the Dark Side of the Moon. Naturaly we’re waiting on Mr. Gilmour to confirm with a short riff narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

  • by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Sunday June 02, 2024 @08:47AM (#64517427)
    One of the theories on why the far side of the Moon is so different from the side toward Earth is due to a super hot initial atmosphere. When the giant impact event happened that threw off the debris that formed the Moon, both bodies were much closer than now and super hot. Many elements we think of as metals would have been vaporized. Very light elements we think of a gases would actually escape. As the Moon cooled, the heavy elements would condense and rain out. But the side facing the Earth would be keep warmer since it was facing the still red hot Earth. So more of these elements would condense on the far side, making that crust thicker. So less vulcanism could break through, so no great lava plains. But the elements that concentrated on the far side are the very things people want to mine.
  • "In the shadow of China's high GDP, it is possible that a significant distortion will lead to prolonged economic stagnation. We gathered open-source information to understand the state of its economy." [nhk.or.jp]

    in order to prop up GDP growth, local governments all over China have been taking on massive debts to build empty skyscrapers and highways to nowhere, amounting to trillions of dollars of hidden debt. meanwhile workers in some sectors haven't been paid in over two years, families are evicted and their homes ra

  • The beauty of the far side of the moon is that no one on earth can see what they hell you're doing there. That makes it a most excellent base for mounting an attack.

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