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.
About 37 minutes after the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket flew, the rocket separated, sending the Chang’e-6 probe directly into the predetermined Earth-moon transfer orbit with a perigee altitude of 200 kilometers and an apogee altitude of about 380,000 kilometers. The Chang’e-6 probe consists of an orbiter, returner, lander, and ascender. Subsequently, with the support of ground measurement and control and the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, the Chang’e-6 probe will undergo processes such as earth-moon transfer, near-moon braking, orbiting the moon, landing and descent, and soft landing on the lunar surface, and finally reach a pre-selected area on the far side of the moon. Collect lunar surface rock and soil samples, and conduct scientific exploration at the same time. After completing the sampling and packaging, the ascender will take off from the lunar surface, then carry out lunar orbit rendezvous and docking and transfer the samples to the returner; the returner will undergo processes such as moon-to-earth transfer, approaching the second cosmic speed and re-entering the earth, and finally carry precious Lunar samples returned to Earth.
According to reports, the entire process from launch to sample return of the Chang’e-6 mission takes about 53 days. The mission cycle is long, there are many engineering innovations, high risks and difficulties, and each stage is interlocked. Compared with the Chang’e-5 mission that achieved sample return from the front side of the moon in 2020, the Chang’e-6 mission needs to implement the first sample return from the far side of the moon with the support of the Queqiao-2 relay star, breaking through the lunar retrograde orbit design and control, and intelligent and rapid lunar backside Key technologies such as sampling and lunar take-off and ascent. At the same time, the Chang’e-6 mission will carry out scientific explorations such as on-site investigation and analysis of the landing area on the back of the moon, laboratory analysis and research of lunar samples, and deepen the study of the formation and evolution history of the moon.
In addition, the Chang’e-6 mission has carried out pragmatic international cooperation. In April 2019, the National Space Administration released the “Announcement on International Payload Cooperation Opportunities for the Chang’e-6 Mission”. Through the collection and selection of proposals for two batches of international payload carrying projects, the ESA lunar surface negative ion analyzer, There are four international carrying projects including the French Lunar Radon Detector, the Italian Laser Corner Reflector, and the Pakistani CubeSat. Among them, the ESA Lunar Surface Negative Ion Analyzer will detect negative ions on the lunar surface and study the interaction mechanism between plasma and the lunar surface; the French Lunar Radon Detector aims to conduct in-situ detection of radon isotopes on the lunar surface and study volatilization The transmission and diffusion mechanism of objects in the lunar environment; the Italian laser corner reflector plans to use the positioning on the back of the moon to carry out joint ranging and positioning research with other lunar exploration missions; the Pakistani CubeSat will carry out an on-orbit imaging mission to verify the NanoSatelllites moon Orbit detection technology.
On May 3, the CNSA- China National Space Administration held a Chang’e-6 international payload seminar in Haikou. About 50 international friends from 12 national space agencies, embassies in China, including Pakistan, France, and Italy, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations and ESA, gathered in Hainan to discuss cooperation and witness the launch of the Chang’e-6 mission.
The Long March 5 launch vehicle is my country’s first new-generation high-thrust launch vehicle with a core diameter of 5 meters. It has a total length of about 57 meters, a take-off weight of about 870 tons, a take-off thrust of more than 1,000 tons, and a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of up to 25 tons. The geosynchronous orbit has a carrying capacity of up to 14 tons and completed its first flight in 2016. Due to the constant changes in the relative position of the Earth and the Moon, in order to ensure that the rocket is launched on time, the model team applied the “narrow window multi-orbit” launch technology and designed a total of 10 lunar orbits for the rocket within a 50-minute window for two consecutive days. Improve implementation launch probability and reliability. At the same time, the development team continued to optimize the launch site process, reducing the time it took to launch Chang’e-5 from nearly 60 days to 43 days. This is the 519th launch of the Long March series of launch vehicles.
The lunar exploration project is organized and implemented under the leadership of the National Space Administration. For this Chang’e-6 mission, the overall project was undertaken by the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the National Space Administration; the detector and launch vehicle were developed by the Space Technology Research Institute and Launch Vehicle Technology Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation respectively; the launch The measurement, control and recovery work is jointly completed by China Wenchang Space Launch Site, Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, Xi’an Satellite Measurement and Control Center, Yuanwang Survey Ship, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and other units; the ground application system is mainly undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration
