The Chinese Chang’e-6 Moon The probe landed in Mongolia on Tuesday looking like a burnt marshmallow after blasting through Earth’s atmosphere.
The warm space probe collected the first samples from the far side of the moon and successfully returned them to Earth. The landing was the highlight of the China The National Space Administration’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission, which launched in May.
Chang’e-6 landed near the Aitken Basin at the moon’s south pole on June 3. Using a robotic arm and drilling tools, Chang’e -6 collected rock and lunar dirt. The sample was shot into lunar orbit on an ascent vehicle, which docked with an orbiter to deliver the lunar debris to Earth.
After sample collection and launch, NASA’s Lunar Exploration Orbiter photographed the Chang’e 6 lander on the edge of an eroded crater with a diameter of 50 meters.
NASA SPACECRAFT TAKES PHOTOS OF CHINA’S CHANG’E 6 LANDER ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
On Tuesday, CNSA officials picked up the spacecraft from northern China as local people watched and celebrated the landing.
The landing marks China’s second successful lunar sample return mission. The country’s Chang’e 5 lander also collected and returned samples from another part of the moon visible to Earth, known as the Ocean of Storms. Studies of those samples found that the collected rocks were about 2 billion years old.
The new samples will be taken to a laboratory for analysis, where teams can determine the age and composition of the lunar material collected.
Original article source: See it: China sends the first samples from the far side of the moon back to Earth