For the first time, man has sampled and returned to the far side of the moon, and the Chang'e-6 probe is expected to be launched before 2025.
CTOnews.com, April 10 (Xinhua)-- with the successful completion of the Chang'e-5 mission launched in November 2020, China has achieved the first unmanned sampling return of the moon, which is also the last step in the three-step goal of "circling, falling, and returning" planned by China's lunar exploration project.
According to the overall arrangement of the lunar exploration project, the Chang'e-6 mission is scheduled to be launched in Wenchang before 2025. It will carry out on-site investigation and analysis of the landing area on the far side of the moon, and conduct systematic and long-term laboratory research on the samples. The Chang'e-7 mission is scheduled to launch before and after 2026, plans to carry out environmental and resource exploration at the South Pole of the moon, and lays the foundation for the construction of an international lunar research station.
The Chang'e-6 probe and its long March V carrier rocket were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The goal of the Chang'e-6 project is to break through the lunar retrograde orbit design and control technology, lunar back intelligent sampling technology and lunar back take-off and ascent technology, realize automatic sampling and return on the opposite side of the moon, and carry out effective international cooperation.
According to reports, as early as 2019, China and France signed a letter of intent on the lunar exploration plan, and French scientific research equipment will board China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe to explore the moon with China. In 2019, Jean-Yves Leghal, president of the French National Space Research Center, said on a social platform that France was prepared to carry about 15 kilograms of equipment on Chang'e-6, including a camera and an analyzer, to facilitate the study of the moon.
CTOnews.com has learned from officials that the Chang'e-6 mission is expected to return to the far side of the moon for the first time by a human spacecraft, which is scheduled to be carried out before 2025. The Chang'e-6 mission chose to land on the far side of the moon and can find and collect lunar samples of different regions and ages.
The goal of the Chang'e-6 project is to break through the lunar retrograde orbit design and control technology, lunar back intelligent sampling technology and lunar back take-off and ascent technology, to realize automatic sampling and return on the far side of the moon, and to carry out effective international cooperation, officials said.
