Beijing, China:
A Chinese space probe sent to collect material from a previously unexplored component of the moon has completed its mission and is preparing to send back the world’s initially lunar samples in 4 decades, Beijing stated Thursday.
China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of obtaining a crewed space station by 2022 and ultimately sending humans to the Moon.
The Chang’e-5 spacecraft, named right after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, landed on the moon Tuesday and has now completed its gathering of lunar rocks and soil, the China National Space Administration stated.
The spacecraft had been due to gather two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material from an location identified as Oceanus Procellarum — or “Ocean of Storms” — a vast lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.
Scientists hope the samples will support them understand about the Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
State media stated this week that the craft was preparing for “around 48 hours” of tasks on the lunar surface.
If thriving, China will be only the third nation to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
This is the initially such try because the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
The CNSA on Thursday stated the Chang’e-5 had completed the sampling and effectively packed the collected components in a unique container by Wednesday evening.
“Scientific detection was carried out as planned,” the space agency stated, without having giving information.
The samples will be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed to land in northern China’s Inner Mongolia area in early December, according to US space agency NASA.
()