China launches mission to retrieve material from moon
WENCHANG, China — China launched an ambitious mission Tuesday to bring back rocks and debris from the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally.
Chang’e 5 — named for the Chinese moon goddess — is the country’s boldest lunar mission yet. If successful, it would be a major advance for China’s space program, and some experts say it could pave the way for bringing samples back from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.
The four modules of the Chang’e 5 spacecraft blasted off at just after 4: 30 a.m. Tuesday atop a massive Long March-5Y rocket from the Wenchang launch center along the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.
Minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s first and second stages and slipped into Earth-moon transfer orbit. About an hour later, Chang’e 5 opened its solar panels to provide its independent power source.
Spacecraft typically take three days to reach the moon.
The mission’s key task is to drill almost 7 feet beneath the moon’s surface and scoop up about 4.4 pounds of rocks and other debris to be brought back to Earth, according to NASA. That would offer the first opportunity for scientists to study newly obtained lunar material since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Chang’e 5 lander’s time on themoon is scheduled to be short and sweet. It can only stay one lunar daytime, or about 14 Earth
days, because it lacks the radioisotope heating units to withstand the moon’s freezing nights.
The lander will dig for materi
als with its drill and robotic arm and transfer them to what’s called an ascender, which will lift off from themoon and dock with the service capsule. The materials will then be moved to the return capsule to be hauled back to Earth.
The technical complexity of Chang’e 5, with its four components, makes it “remarkable in many ways,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a space expert at the U.S. Naval War College.
“China is showing itself capable of developing and successfully carrying out sustained hightech programs, important for regional influence and potentially global partnerships,” she said.
China has increasingly engaged with foreign countries on missions, and the European Space Agency will be providing important ground station information for Chang’e 5.
U.S. law, however, still prevents most collaborations with NASA, excluding China from partnering with the International Space Station.