China’s Chang’e 5 mission successfully lands on the moon

China’s Chang’e 5 mission has successfully landed on the Moon, with the aim of bringing samples back to Earth.

If this mission is successful, China will be the third country in the world to succeed in bringing samples from the moon to the earth, before the United States and the Soviet Union have done so.

After regarding 5 decades, samples from the Moon will be returned to Earth.

This is China’s third robotic mission to land on the lunar surface, but this time the goal is different, namely to bring samples from the lunar surface back to Earth in December.

The Cheng 5 mission was launched on November 23 and arrived at its destination on December 1.

In fact, this is a very complex mission in which 4 manned spacecraft will work together to bring 2 to 4 kg of lunar samples back to Earth.

All four were traveling together and entered lunar orbit on November 28.

CCTV-13 just ran this. #China #Moon #Change5 pic.twitter.com/gxXBNr7mz6

— Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) December 1, 2020

Two of the four spacecraft, the lander and the lunar rover, were placed on top of each other and separated from the third spacecraft on November 28.

The Chang’e-5 service module is still orbiting the moon, while the lander and lunar rover landed on the lunar surface on Tuesday.

Over the next few days, the lander will use a robotic arm to excavate the lunar surface and collect rock samples and store them in a container.

When the samples are collected, the robotic arm will transfer the container to the lunar vehicle above it.

Cheng 5 will then fly to Earth and land back on December 16 or 17.

If all goes according to plan, China will become the third country in the world to successfully bring back samples from the moon.

Between 1969 and 1972, the United States sent 12 astronauts to the Moon through 6 flights under the Apollo program, which returned with 382 kg of rocks and surface samples.

The Soviet Union obtained samples through 3 successful robotic missions in the 1970s.

Chang’e 5 isn’t the only mission to bring back extraterrestrial samples, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission, which has been in space since 2014, is returning this week with samples from the asteroid Ryugu.