At 17:27 on May 3rd Friday 2024 Beijing time CNSA –China National Space Administration, the Chang’e-6 probe was successfully launched by the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, China, People’s Republic of China., and accurately entered the Earth-moon transfer orbit. The launch mission was a complete success. The Chang’e-6 probe has embarked on the world’s first return journey for sampling from the far side of the moon. The pre-selected landing and sampling area is the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon.
[Chang’e-6 successfully landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon] According to the National Space Administration, at 06:23:15:861
Beijing time today, the Chang’e-6 lander and ascender combination, supported by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, successfully landed in the pre-selected landing area of the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon. At 6:09 on June 2, the Chang’e-6 lander and ascender combination began to implement power descent, and the 7500 Newton variable thrust main engine was turned on. During this period, the combination made rapid attitude adjustments and gradually approached the lunar surface. After that, obstacles were automatically detected through the visual autonomous obstacle avoidance system, and a visible light camera was used to select a rough safe point based on the brightness of the lunar surface. It hovered 100 meters above the safe point, and laser three-dimensional scanning was used to take precise photos to detect obstacles on the lunar surface. Finally, the landing point was selected and a slow vertical descent began. When it was about to reach the lunar surface, the engine was shut down, and the buffer system was used to ensure that the combination reached the lunar surface in a free fall manner, and finally landed smoothly in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon.
According to the China Academy of Space Technology, Chang’e-6 is one of the most complex spacecraft systems developed by China so far. The propulsion subsystem developed by the Sixth Academy provides it with the orbiter propulsion subsystem, lander propulsion subsystem and ascender propulsion subsystem. They are composed of 3 orbit control engines, 74 attitude control engines and more than 200 supporting single units such as tanks, gas cylinders, valves, circuit boxes, pressure sensors, etc. Among them, 1 7500N variable thrust engine is used for a smooth soft landing on the moon, and 2 3000N engines are used for the probe’s near-moon braking “in-orbit braking” and lunar takeoff. With their help, the Chang’e-6 probe can complete a series of “difficult actions” in space on its own .
The payload carried by the Chang’e-6 lander will work as planned and carry out scientific exploration missions. The international payloads of the Chang’e-6 mission, the European Space Agency’s lunar surface negative ion analyzer and the French lunar radon detector, are about to start working, and the Italian laser corner reflector has been deployed.
Since the Chang’e-6 probe was launched into orbit on May 3, 2024, it has successively experienced the processes of earth-moon transfer, near-moon braking, circumlunar flight, landing and descent. The Chang’e-6 probe consists of an orbiter, a returner, a lander and an ascender. On May 30, the lander and ascender combination and the orbiter and returner combination were separated in orbit. After the lander and ascender combination lands successfully, the lander will conduct status checks and settings such as the deployment of solar panels and directional antennas under ground control via the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, and then officially begin sampling work on the far side of the moon, which will last about two days. The lunar soil samples and lunar surface rocks will be collected by drilling with a drill and by using a robotic arm to achieve multi-point and diversified automatic sampling. At the same time, scientific explorations such as on-site investigation and analysis of the landing area on the far side of the moon and analysis of the lunar soil structure will be carried out to deepen the research on the origin and evolution history of the moon.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration
