China’s Chang’e-6 en route to retrieve samples from Moon

China’s Chang’e-6 on Friday successfully lifted off for the Moon’s far side to collect and bring back samples from the lunar surface, reports said. A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang’e-6 spacecraft, lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported. While this is China’s second mission to the Moon’s far side, as Chang’e-4 was the first to visit in 2019, it is the first time that dust samples will be collected from the area that never faces the Earth. The probe aims to collect 2 kg samples from the lunar surface. Although Chang’e-5 in 2020 brought back nearly four pounds of regolith, it was from the Moon’s near side. The US and the former Soviet Union have also successfully gathered samples from there and brought them back to Earth. “Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the moon is an unprecedented feat. Now we know very little about the moon’s far side. If the Chang’e-6 mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the moon, which is of great significance,” Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China’s lunar exploration programme, was quoted as saying by Xinhua. The Chang’e-6 spacecraft comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner. The probe also carries four payloads developed through international cooperation.  (IANS)

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