A Chinese space mission has etched its name in history by bringing the first lunar sample from the far side of the moon back to Earth. The Chang’e-6 mission, launched earlier this month, touched down on the moon’s far side, collecting a sample that was returned to Earth on Tuesday, June 25. The return capsule, traveling at almost 7 miles per second, entered Earth’s atmosphere around half an hour before landing in the Siziwang Banner area in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 2:07 p.m. Beijing Time. To slow down, the capsule skipped out of the atmosphere before re-entering and deploying parachutes for a controlled descent.
The capsule will now be transported to a specialized facility for processing and analysis. “After the lunar samples are delivered to the laboratory, we will first unseal the sample container, extract the samples, and separate the samples collected on the lunar surface from those drilled under the surface,” Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-6 mission, explained in a statement. “A portion of the samples will be stored permanently, while another portion will be stored at a different location as backup in case of disasters. Then we will prepare the remaining portion, and distribute them to scientists in China and foreign countries in accordance with the lunar sample management regulations.”
This marks the first time that a sample from the moon’s distant side, perpetually facing away from Earth, has been collected. Often, though inaccurately, referred to as the dark side of the moon, this region presents significant communication challenges compared to the near side, making exploration more complex. Due to these challenges, scientists possess limited information about the geology of this region, which is believed to differ from the moon’s nearer side. It’s thought to have experienced fewer of the lava flows that have traversed the moon’s surface, making it a potential treasure trove of information about the moon’s history.
Beyond the lunar sample retrieval, the Chang’e-6 mission included four international payloads from the European Space Agency (ESA), France, Italy, and Pakistan. The mission also utilized a relay satellite called Queqiao-2, which will remain in orbit around the moon, gathering scientific data through its instruments, including an extreme ultraviolet camera, an array neutral atom imager, and an interferometry experiment.
