Dec 02, 2020 11:22:00

China's unmanned lunar exploration vessel 'Chang'e 5' successfully landed on the moon, and the 'moon rock' recovery mission is proceeding smoothly.

China's unmanned lunar explorer '

Chang'e No. 5 ' launched on November 24, 2020 will be launched at 23:11 local time on December 1st (0:11 on 2nd Japan time). I made a successful landing on the moon. According to the announcement by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) , Chang'e 5 has completed the deployment of antennas and solar arrays immediately after the successful landing on the moon, and plans to collect rock samples on the moon within the next few days. That is.

cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n6758838/c6810683/content.html
http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n6758838/c6810683/content.html

China's Chang'e 5 lands on the moon to collect the 1st fresh lunar samples in decades | Space
https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-5-lands-on-moon-to-collect-lunar-samples

China's Chang'e 5 mission lands on the Moon --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21724067/china-lunar-mission-change-5-moon-soil-samples

On November 24, China launched the unmanned lunar explorer 'Chang'e 5' toward the moon. You can understand the pattern at that time by reading the following article.

China's unmanned lunar exploration vessel 'Chang'e 5' successfully launched, aiming to take back 'moon rock' --GIGAZINE

Chang'e 5 entered the lunar orbit on November 28 after a journey of about 112 hours after being launched from Earth, and headed for the ocean of the storm, which is considered to be the largest in the lunar mare, on December 1. Descent. We have successfully landed on Mount Rümker in the northern part of the Oceanus Procellarum .

Chang'e 5 consists of four modules: a lander, a takeoff ship, an orbiter, and a return ship. This time, two soft landers, a lander and a takeoff ship, made a soft landing on the moon. The lander responsible for the lunar sample recovery mission uses solar power as its main power source, so there is only half a day left for the recovery mission until sunset. However, since the first day of the moon is equivalent to about 29 days on Earth, the mission of Chang'e 5 on the moon is up to about two weeks.

In the future, the lander will excavate the lunar surface up to about 2 meters with the arm equipped on the aircraft, and will collect a total of about 2 kg of lunar rocks. Since the moon does not have the atmosphere and climate of the earth, the formation of strata is much slower than that of the earth. Therefore, the lunar sample 2 meters below is expected to be an archive of records for the past 1 billion years and bring a lot of information to humankind.

Below is a photo of the moon taken by the lander. The black shadow in the center is the leg of the lander.

The samples collected by the lander are delivered to the takeoff vessel and then launched into the lunar orbit, which are then collected by the orbital vessel and the return vessel remaining in the lunar module. If Chang'e 5's mission goes according to plan, a return ship loaded with lunar samples will land in the Inner Mongolia region in mid-December. If the sample return from the moon is successful, it will be the first feat in 44 years since the former Soviet Union's ' Luna 24 ' launched in 1976.

Also, on December 6, the Japanese asteroid explorer ' Hayabusa2 ' will return to Earth with a sample of Ryugu , so in December 2020, humankind will get two valuable samples from space. It is expected to be the moon.