China is currently launching a second lander to the far side of the Moon, which, if successful, will be the first mission in history to bring back a sample of the part of the Moon that Earth never sees.
Unlike the Earth, whose erosion and shifting crust constantly renew its surface, the Moon remains frozen in time. Scientists hope that the recovery of material from the far side will reveal information about the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system.
The mission is called Chang’e-6, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon and pronounced “changa”.
When will Chang’e-6 be launched and how can I watch it?
Chang’e-6 is scheduled to launch at 5:27 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday from the Wenchang Space Site on southern China’s Hainan Island. A live stream of the launch should be available on the Chinese Global Television Network, a Chinese state news service, starting at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. You can watch it in the video player above.
Chang’e-6 will be carried into space by a Long March 5 rocket. If the weather does not cooperate on Friday, a backup launch window of the same length has been reserved for the next day.
What is Chang’e-6?
Chang’e-6 is the latest in a series of Chinese lunar missions designed to orbit or land on the Moon. It will be the first probe to bring back samples from the far side of the Moon.
The first to visit this half of the moon, in 2019, was Chang’e-4, which included a rover to explore the moon’s Von Karman crater. A year later, Chang’e-5 collected nearly four pounds of regolith from the near side of the Moon and returned it to Earth. Scientists from other countries, including some in the United States, recently asked to study these samples.
It will take Chang’e-6 about a month after launch to reach the far side of the Moon, and another month to return.
An orbiter will circle the Moon while the mission’s lander descends to the lunar surface. The lander will collect soil from the surface using a mechanical arm and collect an underground sample up to 6.5 feet deep with a drill. A vehicle on the lander will then lift off from the Moon, transmitting the sample to the orbiter’s re-entry module for return to Earth.
Why the dark side of the Moon?
The United States, the former Soviet Union and China managed to collect samples from the near side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth. But the far side of the Moon – it’s not really the far side of the Moon – is distinct from the near side. It has a thicker crust, more craters and fewer marias, or plains where lava once flowed. With a sample of the far side of the Moon, scientists can begin to understand why the two sides of the Moon are so different.
The mission will collect material from the 1,616-mile-wide South Pole-Aitken Basin. The impact that created the basin – among the largest in the history of the solar system – is thought to have extracted material from the lunar mantle. If these materials can be recovered, scientists will be able to learn more about the history of the Moon’s interior.
Since the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth, it is impossible to directly establish communications with the far side of the Moon. In 2018, China sent the Queqiao satellite into lunar orbit to relay information from Chang’e-4 to Earth. In March, it launched a second satellite called Queqiao-2. The pair will be used in tandem to stay in contact with Chang’e-6 during sample collection.
How does Chang’e-6 fit into China’s broader space exploration goals?
China’s lunar exploration program is one facet of the nation’s growing presence in space, which includes missions to Mars and future asteroid visits. The Chang’e mission series was designed in the 1990s and has a 100% success rate so far. Its next two probes are already in development.
Chang’e-7, scheduled to launch in 2026, will search for water at the lunar south pole. Chang’e-8 will study material in the same region that could potentially be used to build future infrastructure, according to the China National Space Administration.
China hopes to send manned missions to the Moon by 2030 and is also working to establish a permanent international lunar research base in the 2030s.
