EXCLUSIVE: How China’s Chang’e-6 lander will collect soil and rock samples from moon’s far side

BEHIND THE SCENES OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: China’s Chang’e 6 high-tech sample-return process explained. The Chang’e 6 lander has a drilling capacity of up to 2m. The lander is expected to scoop up around 2kg () of material (about the same as the previous mission) which it will transfer to the sample-return container using a robotic arm. This will then be stored in the ascender, which will launch from the top of the lander and rendezvous with the orbiter. The samples will then transfer to the return vehicle to head back to Earth. If all goes to plan, it will be humanity’s first sample from the region, representing an important symbolic, scientific and possibly strategic win for the rising space power. Although this is not even China’s first sample-return mission to the Moon. On 16 December 2020, the return capsule of the Chang’e 5 mission landed in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It had travelled hundreds of thousands of miles from the Moon, carrying 1,731g (61 oz) of precious lunar dust. Now, China landed its 2nd spacecraft – the Chang’e-6 unmanned probe – on the Moon’s far side on Sunday, when no other country has done it once. The feat marks a key milestone in achieving its mission to bring home, for the first time in human history, samples from an unexplored region from Earth’s natural satellite. The Chang’e-6 lander made a soft landing at 6:23 p.m. Eastern June 1 (2223 UTC), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced shortly after the event. The lander targeted a southern portion of Apollo crater within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the lunar far side. #chinaspace #ChangE6 #chinanews