The mission of the Chinese Chang’e-6 spacecraft to the Moon

The Chinese Chang’e-6 space probe, which consists of an orbiter, a descent vehicle, an ascent vehicle and a small rover, was launched into space with a Chinese Long March 5 rocket on May 3, 2024. Its mission: travel to the Moon, land on the far side of the Moon, collect samples and send them to Earth.

On May 8, after a journey of several days, Chang’e-6 entered lunar orbit.

On June 2, the set made up of the descent vehicle and the ascent vehicle, and carrying the rover, landed in the planned area. With its braking drive, it gradually decreased its speed and altitude, positioning itself above the lunar landing zone, the Apollo crater, located within the enormous Aitken basin of the lunar south pole, located on the far side.

At about a hundred meters high, it floated temporarily, while its cameras and sensors observed the surface and determined the best landing point, avoiding steep terrain or steep terrain.

Given the possibility that the lunar dust raised by the braking propulsion prevented the ship from seeing what was below, it carried a gamma ray-based system capable of measuring altitude through the dust. Once the ship selected the final landing point, it descended vertically towards it. At a very low altitude above the ground, he turned off the propulsion and dropped. Although the altitude was very low, a padding system softened the contact with the surface.

Since the landing zone of Chang’e-6 is on the far side of the Moon, the descent and landing process could not be observed from Earth, nor are direct communications possible. To enable communications, the mission has used the Queqiao-2 satellite, in lunar orbit, which was sent there in March of this year. Queqiao-2 has served as a communications link between Earth and the far side of the Moon.

After the moon landing and the relevant checks, scientific activities began. The rover went outside and captured images. Sample collection was also carried out. These were stored inside the ascent vehicle. Once this vehicle was loaded, it took off from the Moon and met the mother ship in lunar orbit on June 6.

The lander was photographed from space by NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) space probe.

The bright white speck in the center of the photograph is the Chang’e-6 descent vehicle. This was seen from space by NASA’s LRO space probe, which has been orbiting our natural satellite since 2009. (Photo: NASA Goddard / Arizona State University)

The return trip began, its culmination being the descent into Chinese territory of the capsule containing the samples, on June 25, 2024. (Source: NCYT by Amazings)