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Chang'e 6

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Chang'e 6
Mission typeSurface sample return
OperatorCNSA
COSPAR ID2024-083A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.59627Edit this on Wikidata
Mission duration53 days (planned)
181 days, 1 hour, 36 minutes
(in progress)
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerCAST
Launch mass8,350 kg (18,410 lb)[1]
Start of mission
Launch date3 May 2024 (2024-05-03)
09:27:29 UTC[2][3]
RocketLong March 5
Launch siteWenchang
End of mission
Landing date25 June 2024 (2024-06-26) (expected)
Landing siteInner Mongolia, China (expected)
Lunar orbiter
Orbital insertion8 May 2024
02:12 UTC[4]
Orbital departure20 June 2024 (expected)
Orbital parameters
Periapsis altitude200 km (120 mi)
Inclination137°
Lunar lander
Landing date1 June 2024
22:23:16 UTC[5][6]
Return launch3 June 2024
23:38:10 UTC[7]
Landing siteSouthern mare of Apollo Basin
41°38′18″S 153°59′08″W / 41.63839°S 153.98545°W / -41.63839; -153.98545[8][9]
Lunar rover
Landing date1 June 2024
22:23:16 UTC[5][6]
Landing siteSouthern mare of Apollo Basin[8][10]
Chang'e probes

Chang'e 6 (Chinese: 嫦娥六号; pinyin: Cháng'é liùhào) is a robotic lunar exploration mission by the China National Space Administration. Like its predecessors in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e.

It was launched on 3 May 2024. The mission's lander and Yidong Xiangji rover landed on the far side of the Moon on 1 June 2024.[5] As China's second sample return mission, its robotic scoop and drill then took samples from the lunar surface and these were launched back into lunar orbit on 3 June.[2] It is also conducting scientific experiments on the lunar surface and the overall mission is expected to last about 53 days.[2]

Overview

Further information: Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
See also: Lunar south pole and far side of the Moon

The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is designed to be conducted in four[11] phases of incremental technological advancement:

  • The goal of the first phase was to reach lunar orbit. This was completed by Chang'e 1 in 2007 and by Chang'e 2 in 2010.
  • The second phase sought to land and rove on the Moon, a feat that was accomplished by Chang'e 3 in 2013 and by Chang'e 4 in 2019.
  • The third phase involves the collection of lunar samples and sending them to Earth, first completed by Chang'e 5 in 2020 and in progress by Chang'e 6.
  • The fourth phase consists of the development of a robotic research station near the Moon's south pole.[11][12][13] The program aims to facilitate crewed lunar landings in the 2030s and possibly build a crewed outpost near the lunar south pole.[14]

The preceding Chang'e 5 mission returned 1.731 kilograms (3.82 lb) of material from the northern hemisphere of the lunar near side.

The Chang'e 6 mission landed on southern hemisphere of the lunar far side to gather more material. Specifically, the landing segment of the Chang'e 6 mission was the southern portion of the Apollo crater, which itself lies within the larger South Pole-Aitken (SPA) impact basin on the lunar far side. The samples collected from the target area may include lunar mantle material ejected by the original impact that created the SPA basin.[2]

The Chang'e 6 lander landed at 22:23 UTC on 1 June 2024.[5] After the completion of sample collection and the placement of the sample on the ascender by the probe's robotic drill and robotic arm, the ascender successfully took off from atop the lander portion of the probe at 23:38 UTC on 3 June 2024.[7][15]

The mission's lander collected about 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) of lunar far-side material including surface soil and rocks (using a scoop) and subsurface samples (using a drill). If the mission is fully successful, China will be the first nation to bring back samples from the far side of the Moon.[16]

The hole left by the sampling was in the shape of the character zhong (中) which is the initial character of China's name Zhōngguó 中國. This symbolism went viral on Weibo.[17]

Mission architecture

Chang'e 6 was built as a copy of and backup to Chang'e 5.[18] The mission is reported to consist of four modules:

  • Lander: landed on the lunar surface after separating from the Orbiter, equipped with a drill and a scooping device. The Ascender was on the top of the Lander. It collected about 2 kg (4.4 lb) of samples from 2 metres (6.6 ft) below the surface[19] and placed them in the attached ascent vehicle to be launched into lunar orbit.
  • Ascender: The ascent vehicle will then make a fully autonomous and robotic Lunar orbit rendezvous and docking with Orbiter where the samples will be robotically transferred into a sample-return capsule for their delivery to Earth.[20][21]
  • Orbiter: after the samples were transported from the Ascender to the Orbiter, the Orbiter left lunar orbit and spent ~4.5 days flying back to Earth orbit and released the Returner (reentry capsule) just before arrival.
  • Returner: The Returner performed a skip reentry to bounce off the atmosphere once before formal reentering.

The estimated launch mass is 8,200 kg (18,100 lb)—the lander is projected to be 3,200 kg (7,100 lb) and the ascent vehicle is about 700 kg (1,500 lb).[22][20][23]

Science payloads

In October 2018, Chinese officials announced that they would call for international partners to propose an additional payload up to 10 kg (22 lb) to be included in this mission.[24] In November 2022, it was announced that the mission would carry payloads from four international partners:[25][26]

Lander

  • A French instrument called DORN (Detection of Outgassing Radon) to study the transport of lunar dust and other volatiles between the lunar regolith and the lunar exosphere, including the water cycle.[27]
  • The Italian instrument INRRI (INstrument for landing-Roving laser Retroreflector Investigations) consists of a retroreflector that precisely measures distances from the lander to orbit,[28] similar to those used in the Schiaparelli and InSight missions.
  • The Swedish NILS (Negative Ions on Lunar Surface), an instrument to detect and measure negative ions reflected by the lunar surface.[29]

Orbiter

  1. ^ "Historic journey from Chang'e 6 lifts off". China National Space Administration. 3 May 2024. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Jones, Andrew (10 January 2024). "China's Chang'e-6 probe arrives at spaceport for first-ever lunar far side sample mission". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Long March 5 – Chang'e 6". nextspaceflight.com. Archived from the original on 29 April 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  4. ^ "嫦娥六号探测器成功实施近月制动顺利进入环月轨道飞行" (in Simplified Chinese). 中国新闻网. 8 May 2024. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d Jones, Andrew (1 June 2024). "Chang'e-6 lands on far side of the moon to collect unique lunar samples". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  6. ^ a b Seger Yu [@SegerYu] (1 June 2024). "落月时刻 2024-06-02 06:23:15.861" (Tweet) (in Chinese) – via Twitter.
  7. ^ a b Lee, Liz; Baptista, Eduardo (3 June 2024). "China's Chang'e-6 lifts off from far side of moon". Reuters.com. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b "大陸「嫦娥六號」明年5月發射 擬帶回月球背面岩石採樣" (in Traditional Chinese). 聯合報. 25 April 2023. Archived from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  9. ^ Segar Yu (2 June 2024). "@SegarYu" (in Simplified Chinese). X. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  10. ^ Segar Yu (2 June 2024). "@SegarYu" (in Simplified Chinese). X. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  11. ^ a b Chang'e 4 press conference Archived 15 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine. CNSA, broadcast on 14 January 2019.
  12. ^ China's Planning for Deep Space Exploration and Lunar Exploration before 2030 Archived 3 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. (PDF) XU Lin, ZOU Yongliao, JIA Yingzhuo. Space Sci., 2018, 38(5): 591–592. doi:10.11728/cjss2018.05.591
  13. ^ A Tentative Plan of China to Establish a Lunar Research Station in the Next Ten Years Archived 15 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Zou, Yongliao; Xu, Lin; Jia, Yingzhuo. 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 14–22 July 2018, in Pasadena, California, USA, Abstract id. B3.1-34-18.
  14. ^ China lays out its ambitions to colonize the moon and build a "lunar palace" Archived 29 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Echo Huang, Quartz. 26 April 2018.
  15. ^ Huaxia (3 June 2024). "China's spacecraft takes off from moon with first samples from lunar far side". Xinhua.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  16. ^ "China launches Chang'e 6 sample-return mission to moon's far side (Video)". Space.com. 3 May 2024. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  17. ^ Limited, Bangkok Post Public Company. "China"s lunar lander lifts off from far side with cargo of dirt". Bangkok Post. Archived from the original on 5 June 2024. Retrieved 4 June 2024. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ "Apollo 13 Crew". Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  19. ^ Andrew Jones (7 June 2017). "China confirms landing site for Chang'e-5 Moon sample return". GB Times. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  20. ^ a b Future Chinese Lunar Missions Archived 4 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine. David R. Williams, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Accessed on 30 November 2018.
  21. ^ "Chang'e 5 test mission". Spaceflight101.com. 2017. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  22. ^ Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6 Archived 3 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Gunter Dirk Krebs, 'Gunter's Space Page'. Accessed on 9 January 2019.
  23. ^ China well prepared to launch Chang e-5 lunar probe in 2017: top scientist Archived 10 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine. China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). 25 October 2016.
  24. ^ China invites international cooperation in Chang'e-6 Moon sample return mission Archived 17 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Andrew Jones, "GB Times". 1 October 2018.
  25. ^ CNSA Watcher [@CNSAWatcher] (25 November 2022). "On Nov 24, CNSA confirmed Chang'e 6 lunar landing mission will launch in 2025. Countries participating: China, EU, Italy, France, Sweden, and Pakistan. Also confirmed by CNSA: "hopper" probes will explore shadowed craters for iced water in Chang'e 7 & 8" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ^ Jones, Andrew (20 December 2022). "China picks 4 international payloads for historic sample-return mission to moon's far side". Space.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  27. ^ "State visit of President Macron to China – In 2023, Chang'e 6 will deploy the French DORN instrument on the Moon to study the lunar exosphere". CNES. 6 November 2019. Archived from the original on 19 December 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  28. ^ "Chang'e-6 launch: What to expect". Planetary Society. 29 April 2024. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  29. ^ Canu-Blot, Romain; Wieser, Martin; Barabash, Stash (23 September 2022). "The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS): first dedicated negative ion instrument on the Chang'E-6 mission to the Moon". 16th Europlanet Science Congress 2022. Bibcode:2022EPSC...16..992C. doi:10.5194/epsc2022-992.
  30. ^ Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad. "ICUBE-Q". Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  31. ^ "Pakistan's 'historic' lunar mission to be launched on Friday aboard China lunar probe". DAWN. 30 April 2024. Archived from the original on 1 May 2024. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
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