The Chinese National Space Agency has just passed one of the key milestones for its latest mission to the Moon . The Chang’e 5 has successfully land near Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum ( the Ocean of Storms ) , the vast dark - tinge region on the Moon ’s near side .
The missionary post direct to fetch back lunar samples to consider on Earth . Chang’e 5 is expected to collect about 2 kilograms ( 4.4 pounds ) of lunar cloth , some from the control surface and the rest period from a depth of 2 meter ( 6.6 feet ) , with the drilling schedule to get a few hours after landing .
Once the sampling is collected , it will be stored in the upgrade vehicle and launch back into lunar orbit . There it will rendezvous with the satellite and the sample distribution will be transfer into a sample - reappearance capsule for speech to Earth . The journey back home will take 4.5 days .
The capsule is have a bun in the oven to hire theskip reentry technique , previously employed in the Apollo commission as well as the 2014 Chang’e 5 - T1 mission which tested this exact scenario . The capsule will act like a pebble thrown at the surface of a lake . It will rake the atmosphere once before falling down to Earth . For the Chang’e 5 sample , this is ask to happen on December 16 - 17 landing somewhere in Mongolia .
The lander is designed to work for a single lunar day , which last 14 of our Earthly counterparts . The lunar dark is extremely frigid , with temperature falling to -130 ° C ( -208 ° F ) . Previous charge likeChang’e 4have been fit with a radioisotope heater unit to live the night , so Chang’e 5 will have to work efficiently .
If the whole military mission is a success , this will be the first clip in 44 years that lunar sampling have been amass from the Moon . The last fourth dimension was the Russian Luna 24 mission in 1976 . Chang’e 5 will be followed up by Chang’e 6 , another sampling homecoming mission . These two are part of the third stage of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program .
The first phase saw the spacecraft Chang’e 1 and 2 entering lunar electron orbit . The second phase was landing and roving , accomplish by Chang’e 3 and 4 . The fourth phase will see the construction of a automatonlike research station near the lunar south pole . The finish is to achieve a crewed lunar landing in the 2030s with a possible outpost there .
Like all previous Chinese lunar military mission , Chang’e 5 is named after Chang’e , the Taiwanese goddess of the Moon .
