A probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon is expected to return to Earth, capping a technically complex 53-day mission heralded as a world first.
Beijing’s space agency said the Chang’e-6 spacecraft “will come back to Earth carrying precious ‘gifts’ on June 25”, without giving an estimated arrival time.
The probe comes bearing soil and rocks from the side of the Moon that faces away from Earth, a poorly understood region that scientists say holds great research promise because its rugged features are less smoothed over by ancient lava flows than the near side.
That means the materials harvested there may help us to better understand how the Moon formed and how it has evolved over time.
Chang’e-6 blasted off from a space centre on the island province of Hainan on May 3 and descended into the Moon’s immense South Pole-Aitken Basin almost exactly a month later.
China’s space agency said in a social media post on Friday that Chang’e-6 was “70 per cent” of the way back to Earth.
State broadcaster CCTV said yesterday that the returner module would “re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and is planned to touch down at the landing site in Dorbod Banner, Inner Mongolia”.
It reported that local farmers and animal herders have been evacuated from the area ahead of the touchdown.
“We hope that our country’s space exploration will continue to advance and that our nation will become stronger,” Uljii, a local herdsman, told Xinhua.
China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to eventually build a base on the lunar surface. — AFP
