China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that its Chang’e 5 probe has successfully landed on the far side of the moon at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time. The lander touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest and oldest impact crater on the moon, marking the first time a spacecraft has landed on the moon’s far side. The mission is the latest in China’s ambitious lunar exploration program, which has the goal of returning lunar samples to Earth, studying the moon’s surface and composition, and eventually sending humans to the moon.
The Chang’e 5 probe consists of a lander, an ascender, and a re-entry capsule. The lander carries a mechanical arm and a drill to collect up to 2 kilograms of surface and underground material. The ascender will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting the moon. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region about June 25.
Missions to the moon’s far side are more difficult because it doesn’t face the Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications. The terrain is also more rugged, with fewer flat areas to land. However, the far side of the moon offers unique scientific opportunities, as it has been less exposed to the solar wind and other space erosion processes than the near side. Scientists hope that the samples collected by Chang’e 5 will provide valuable insights into the moon’s formation and evolution, and may even shed light on the origins of life on Earth.
