China’s Chang’e 6 mission has successfully delivered the first samples from the far side of the Moon to Earth. But what happened to the lander that collected the moon?
Song 6 was initiated May 3. The mission consisted of four spacecraft – an orbiter, lander, ascent vehicle and reentry capsule. Lander Apollo touched the crater on June 1, with the main mission of scooping and drilling unique samples from the far side of the Moon and loading them into an ascent for blast into lunar orbit.
The samples eventually reached Earth on June 25. Touch down Planned in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.
Meanwhile, the Chang’e 6 lander remains operational the moon. It carried other payloads, including a panoramic imager and a small rover. Insight into the lander’s fate recently came from the French space agency CNES, which delivered a radon-outcasing-detection payload called DORN to the mission.
Related: China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft has found a long-sought particle on the far side of the moon
“As planned, DORN was launched shortly before Chang’e 6 lifted off from the lunar surface when the ground platform malfunctioned,” the CNES Press Attaché said in an email.
The explosion of the ascent could cause extensive damage to the lander, although the latter was able to capture footage of the event. Accordingly, all measures – incl Autonomous deployment of the rover and imaging of the lander – Closed before departure. It also includes another European instrument It recorded previously undetected charged particles On the surface of the moon.
If any operations were conducted after liftoff, they would have been halted at night over Apollo’s crater. Unlike still functioning Song 3 And Song 4 For the near- and far-moon landings, respectively, Chang’e 6’s lander did not carry the radioactive isotope heaters needed for long-term operations on the moon, which would have required surviving the deep cold of the long lunar night. Nighttime in the Apollo crater began on June 11, and the sun rose again over the site on June 26.
Meanwhile, the Ascender, which carried samples from the Moon to the waiting Chang’e 6 spacecraft in lunar orbit, is no longer operational. Although China’s space authorities have not commented on the fate of the ascent, the rocket may have been responsibly diverted to the moon after docking with the orbiter and changing samples.
Radio amateur Scott Tilley tracked signals from the lander, and their absence suggests it was instructed to impact the moon.
A quick update on the Chang’e 6 mission. Ascender was a no-show today, as CE5 followed the expected mission timeline, meaning it left orbit and impacted the Moon. The orbiter is behaving normally and has been in and out of Argentina throughout today.June 8, 2024
China appears to have enacted the sampling protocol with its Song 5 mission, which returned samples to Earth from the Moon’s vicinity in the late 2020s.
With all other aspects completed, the reentry capsule and the samples inside were flown to Beijing on Wednesday (June 26). These samples will soon be transferred to specially designed facilities for storage, analysis and distribution for research.
Meanwhile, the Queqiao 2 Lunar Relay satellite, which helped facilitate the remote sampling mission, will continue orbiting with its science payloads. It will support the ongoing Chang’e 4 mission and upcoming missions Song 7 mission, which will target the South Pole of the Moon in 2026.
