China successfully launched the Chang'e-5 spacecraft that will bring samples from the moon for the first time in 44 years (Live)

Chang'e-5 will have only one lunar day to collect lunar material from a previously unexplored region on the near side of the moon, along the way allowing China access to lunar rocks, which is currently denied due to US restrictions with China

The article was updated on 23/11 at 22:45 to report on the success of the launch.

About three years late, this evening at 22:25 Israel time, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) launched a Chinese spacecraft named Chang'e-5 (pronounced Chang'e-5) to the moon with the aim of collecting lunar rocks for the first time in more than forty years. The last spacecraft that brought samples from the moon was the Soviet Luna 24 in 1976, and if it succeeds in all the steps until landing (which are not as simple as we saw with the Genesis spacecraft), China will be the third country to carry out a mission to bring rocks from the moon after the USA and the Soviet Union.

China also plans to send people to the moon this decade, perhaps as a counterweight to NASA, which is set to send two astronauts - a man and a woman already chosen - to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo mission in 1972. The original plan of the Trump administration is to carry out the launch by 2024, apparently in light of the Corona epidemic and the change of administration, the new administration will change the order of priorities, and the task may be postponed, so the Chinese may nevertheless advance.

The launch is expected to take place from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. Its original launch, planned for 2017, was delayed by an engine failure on China's Long March 5 launch vehicle.

The mission objective of Chang'e-5 is to land in the Mons Rumkar region within the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum about 41-45 deg. N, 49-69 deg. W), operate for one lunar day (our two weeks) and return a 2 kg sample C of Regolit from the soil of the moon - when an attempt is made to dig to a depth of 2 meters. The sample will be returned to Earth in the return capsule and will land in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China on December 17, 2020. It should be noted that the area where Chang'e-5 will land is an area where no manned (Apollo) or unmanned (Luna spacecraft) spacecraft has landed. .

Chang'e-5's mission is to collect dust and debris (regular) from a previously unexplored region of the Moon on the near side of the Moon and return it to Earth. If the mission is successful, it will bring back the first lunar material since the American and Soviet missions of the XNUMXs and XNUMXs. Lunar scientists will be eager to study the new samples and learn from them about the moon's evolution. The material could also help researchers more precisely date the surface of planets like Mars and Mercury.

Chang'e-5 is the latest so far in a series of increasingly complex flights to the surface of the moon led by the China National Space Administration. Remember, last year China landed the Chang'e-4 spacecraft for the first time on the far side of the moon.

grab and go

Chang'e-5 includes modules for landing, take-off (from the moon), coffee (of the moon) and return (to Earth). After the spacecraft enters orbit around the moon, the pair of landing and takeoff modules will separate and descend close to Mons Rümker, a complex volcano 1,300 meters high in the northern region of the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum) — the vast, dark lava plains visible from Earth.

China's Chang'e-5 mission is the first to collect material since the American and Soviet missions of the XNUMXs and XNUMXs. She will land in the northern part of the Ocean of Storms which is a vast lava plain.

l American mission  l Soviet mission

After the spacecraft lands, it will drill up to two meters into the ground and extend a robotic arm to collect up to 2 kg of surface material. The material will be stored in the launch module until it is launched to Earth.

The landing and takeoff will take place on one lunar day, which is roughly equivalent to 14 Earth days, to avoid the extreme temperatures at night that can damage electronic devices. After the launch module returns to lunar orbit, the samples will be transferred to the return module. This in-flight encounter will be complex and "a good return to future human journeys," says James Carpenter, human and robotic exploration research coordinator at the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

The Chang'e-5 spacecraft will then fly back to Earth, and the landing module will plummet toward Xizibang County in Inner Mongolia, northern China, on December 17.

The task is technically challenging, and many things can go wrong. The landing module can crash or overturn, and the samples can come out of their container during the process.

The rocks will be available to researchers from all over the world

Most of the lunar samples will be stored at the China National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, says Li Chunlai, deputy chief planner of the Chang'e-5 mission. Some of the material will be stored in a separate site, safe from natural hazards, and some will be set aside for public display, Lee says. Apparently only scientists working in collaboration with Chinese scientists will be able to study the rocks. Says Xiao Long, a planetary geologist at the University of Earth Sciences of China in Wuhan, who participated in the selection of the landing site in an interview with the Nature website.

Western researchers interviewed for the article hope that access to the samples will be similar to how researchers get access to rocks collected in the US Apollo missions - by submitting a proposal to NASA on how they intend to use them. But Xiao points out that scientists at Chinese institutions cannot access the Apollo samples because the US government restricts NASA from cooperating directly with China.

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• The Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 4 made a soft landing on the far side of the moon.
• A Chinese astronaut to the moon - when?
• The Chinese Yuto vehicle is already traveling with its six wheels on the lunar soil