The first lunar soil samples to be collected in more than 45 years are expected to return to Earth later today when the Chinese probe Chang’e-5 lands in China.
Chinese ground crews are standing by for the return of the lunar probe that launched for the Moon on November 23 and landing on the surface on December 1.
The Chang’e-5 probe is expected to land in the Siziwang district of the vast Inner Mongolia region late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to sources.
It fired its engines early Wednesday to put it on course, before the orbiter separates from the return vehicle – with all systems functioning as expected, officials say.
A Chinese flag was raised on the Moon as part of the mission to collect samples of rock and return them to the Earth for the first time in 45 years
Recovery of the return vehicle will be complicated by its small size, darkness and heavy snow covering parts of the Siziwang district, state media reported.
Plans call for it to perform an initial bounce off the Earth’s atmosphere to reduce its speed before passing through and floating down on parachutes.
This method makes it difficult to precisely calculate where it will land, Bian Hancheng, a leader of the recovery crew, told Xinhua News Agency.
State broadcaster CCTV showed four military helicopters standing by Wednesday morning at a base on the snow-covered grasslands.
The Chang’e-5 probe gathered samples on the moon surface on Wednesday, December 2 before launching them into lunar orbit and returning them to the Earth for collection
Crews of Chinese space agency officials are in vehicles on the ground in the region, and they will seek to hone in on signals from the returning probe.
While sprawling in size, the area is relatively familiar because of its use as a landing site for China’s Shenzhou crewed spaceships.
Chang’e-5 set down on the moon on December 1 and collected about 4.4 pounds of samples by scooping them from the surface, and by drilling 6ft into the lunar crust.
The samples were deposited in a sealed container on the lunar surface, that was then carried back to the return module by an ascent vehicle.
Flying a Chinese flag, the lander has now stopped working as it was used as a launch pad for the ascender craft carrying the rock and dust samples.
The spacecraft’s return will mark the first time scientists have obtained fresh samples of lunar rocks since the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 robot probe in 1976.
Chang’e-5 blasted off from a launch base in China’s southern island province of Hainan on November 23 on a mission expected to last 23 days.
It marks Chins’s third successful lunar landing but the only one to lift off again from the Moon. Its predecessor, Chang’e-4, became the first probe to land on the Moon’s little-explored far side and continues to send back data on conditions.
This data being sent back by Chang’e-4 could help scientists understand issues that could affect a future extended stay by humans on the Moon.
This simulated image of the ascender of Chang’e-5 spacecraft shows the way it blasted off from the lunar surface of the Moon to return samples back to Earth
The Moon has been a particular focus of the Chinese space program, which says it plans to land humans there and possibly construct a permanent base.
No timeline or other details have been announced by Chinese officials.
China has also joined the effort to explore Mars. In July, it launched the Tianwen 1 probe, which was carrying a lander and a robotic rover to search for water.
China’s space program has proceeded more cautiously than the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s, which was marked by fatalities and launch failures.
In 2003, China became the third country to send an astronaut into orbit on its own after the Soviet Union and the US.
The latest sample-return mission included support from the European Space Agency, which was helping to monitor the mission.
This graphic simulation shows the orbiter and returner combination of China’s Chang’e-5 probe after its separation from the ascender
Chang’e-5 has been a rapid turnaround mission, launching on November 24 and returning samples to Earth three weeks later on December 16 or 17
NASA wasn’t able to be involved with the mission due to concerns from the US government over close ties between the Chinese space program and its military.
That has also prevented China from taking part in the International Space Station, something it has sought to compensate for with the launching of an experimental space station that should be live in the next two years.
The rocks and debris brought back by Chang’e-5 are thought to be billions of years younger than those obtained by the US and former Soviet Union, offering new insights into the history of the moon and other bodies in the solar system.
They come from a part of the Moon known as the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, near a site called the Mons Rumker that was once volcanic.
As with the 842 pounds of samples brought back by US astronauts from 1969 to 1972, they will be analysed for age and composition and shared with other countries.