China launches chang’e 5 spacecraft to collect samples from the moon and get back to Earth. The spacecraft is uncrewed and is the 1st try in a long time to collect moon’s rock samples. The launch was successful and is going to last for a month at most. This is because the spacecraft hasn’t been designed to withstand the cold temperatures of the moon. So, if everything goes according to plan, it will come back to Earth with rocks from the moon.
More about the mission
China’s chang’e 5 probe was launched from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Though this mission is going to make China only the third country to bring back samples from the moon, it will still be in a very less quantity. We know that China plans on bringing 4 pounds of rocks back to Earth, which is a fraction of the 842 pounds that the US brought back in 1969-72. Unlike old times China has broadcasted the entire launch event online and on TV showing their confidence.
China plans to study the rocks that the spacecraft brigs back to understand more about the moon’s formation. With the success of this mission, China wants to progress even further into space missions. It plans on setting up a robotic base station for uncrewed mission and exploring then further side of the moon. But it will be difficult to say how the latest mission will pan out as for the country it is the most complicated one they have ever attempted.
China’s older space ventures
The country’s first journey in the space was the Chang’e 1 which flew 200Km above the moon and sent 3d-models of the moon to Earth. Then the country launched the Chang’e 2 in 2010, which went a step further and sent high-resolution images for better analysis. In 2013, the country launched the Chang’e 3 which also had a moon rover and landed on the moon. And the most recent of the launched excluding the chang’e 5 is the chang’e 4 that landed on the south side of the moon.
All these launches were an essential part of China’s space journey. And also helped the country understand a lot about the moon and its characteristics. This includes the formation of the terrain, composition of rocks, radiation, structure detection and more.
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