China all set for launch of mission to far side of moon

The Chang’e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination at the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, China on Saturday.

China will send a robotic spacecraft in the coming days on a round trip to the moon’s far side in the rst of three technically demanding missions that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole.

Since the rst Chang’e mission in 2007, China has made big leaps in its lunar exploration programme, narrowing the technological chasm with the U.S.

In 2020, China brought back samples from the moon’s near side in the rst sample retrieval in more than four decades, con rming for the rst time it could safely return an uncrewed spacecraft to the earth from the lunar surface.

This week, China is expected to launch Chang’e-6 using the backup spacecraft from the 2020 mission, and collect soil and rocks from the side of the moon that permanently faces away from the earth.

With no direct line of sight with the earth, Chang’e-6 must rely on a recently deployed relay satellite orbiting the moon during its 53-day mission, including a

China is expected to launch Chang’e-6 using the backup spacecraft from the 2020 mission, and collect soil and rocks from the side of the moon that faces away from the earth

never-before attempted ascent from the moon’s “hidden” side on its return journey home.

The same relay satellite will support the uncrewed Chang’e-7 and 8 missions in 2026 and 2028, respectively, when China starts to explore the south pole for water and build a rudimentary outpost with Russia. China aims to put its astronauts on the moon by 2030.

Beijing’s polar plans have worried NASA, whose administrator, Bill Nelson, has repeatedly warned that China would claim any water resources as its own. Beijing says it remains committed to cooperation with all nations on building a “shared” future.

On Chang’e-6, China will carry payloads from France, Italy, Sweden and Pakistan, and on Chang’e-7, payloads from Russia, Switzerland and Thailand.

NASA is banned by U.S. law from any collaboration, direct or indirect, with China. Under the separate NASA-led Artemis programme, U.S. astronauts will land near the south pole in 2026, the rst humans on the moon since 1972.

Chang’e 6 will attempt to land on the northeastern side of the vast South Pole-Aitken Basin, the oldest known impact crater in the solar system.

The southernmost landing ever was carried out in February by IM-1, a joint mission between NASA and the Texas-based private rm Intuitive Machines.

The south pole has been described by scientists as the “golden belt” for lunar exploration.

Polar ice could sustain long-term research bases without relying on expensive resources transported from the earth. India’s Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008 con rmed the existence of ice inside polar craters.

Chang’e-6’s sample return could also shed more light on the early evolution of the moon and the inner solar system.