Beijing -China Chang’e 6 lunar probe returned to Earth on Tuesday with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon, for a global first. The probe landed in northern China, in the Inner Mongolia region, on Tuesday afternoon.
“I now declare that the Chang’e 6 Lunar Exploration Mission has achieved complete success,” Zhang Kejian, director of the China National Space Administration, said at a televised news conference shortly after landing.
Chinese scientists expect the returned samples will contain 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rocks and other material that they hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the two sides of the moon.
The near side is what you see from Earth, and the far side faces space. The far side is also known to have mountains and impact craters, which contrast with the relatively flat plains visible on the near side.
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While previous American and Soviet missions have collected samples from the near side of the moon, the Chinese mission was the first to collect samples from the far side.
The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the US – still the leader in space exploration – and others, including Japan And India. China has set its own space station in orbit around the Earth and regularly sends crews there.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the Chang’e team, saying it was a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts to become a space and technological power.”
The probe left Earth on May 3 and its journey lasted 53 days. The probe drilled into the core and scooped rocks from the surface. Before the reentry unit left the lunar surface for the journey home, Chang’e 6 unfurled a Chinese flag on the far side of the moon, another global first.
Tingshu Wang/REUTERS
The samples “are expected to answer one of the most fundamental scientific questions in lunar science: What geological activity is responsible for the differences between the two sides?” Zongyu Yue, a geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a statement published in Innovation Monday, a journal published in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China has launched several successful missions to the moon in recent years, previously collecting samples from the near side of the moon with the Chang’e 5 probe.
They also hope the probe has returned with material containing traces of meteorite impacts from the moon’s past.
