China prepares to land moon rocks from the far side of the moon on Earth

On Tuesday, a capsule carrying soil from the far side of the moon will parachute into the desert in China’s Inner Mongolia region.

The sample, taken by the China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-6 lander, is expected to be the latest in a series of near-perfect executions of Chinese lunar exploration missions since 2007.

Here’s what you need to know about the return of the Chang’e-6 mission to Earth.

When is the landing and how can I watch it?

China’s space agency has not yet confirmed when the mission will end.

But according to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Chang’e-6 sample return capsule is expected to land at 1:41 a.m. ET, which is 1:41 p.m. local time in the Siziwang Banner area. of Inner Mongolia, a region in northern China.

China Global Television Network, an international news channel owned by a Chinese state broadcaster, is conducting a live video broadcast ahead of the expected landing time.

What is the far side of the moon?

Don’t call it the dark side of the moon, for starters – it gets a lot of sunlight.

But when you look at the sky from Earth, you only see one side of the moon, the near side. Its face is pockmarked with vast, dark fields where ancient lava once flowed.

The far side of the moon—the half hidden to us on Earth—is different. There are fewer of those fields, more craters and a thicker crust, though scientists aren’t sure why.

It may not be a mystery much longer. China has landed two missions there with the aim of studying why it is so different from nearby.

What is China’s Chang’e program?

Named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e (pronounced “chong-uh”), China’s lunar exploration program was originally designed with three phases: orbiting, landing, and sampling. The first two spacecraft, Chang’e-1 and 2, orbited the moon, taking images and mapping its surface. Chang’e-3 landed on the lunar near side in 2013, and in 2019, Chang’e-4 did the same on the far side. Rovers from both missions then studied the lunar surface more closely.

A year later, Chang’e-5 touched down and collected nearly four kilograms of lunar regolith that was then launched back to Earth. The mission made China the third country – after the United States and the Soviet Union – to retrieve a sample from the moon.

What has happened during Chang’e-6 so far?

Chang’e-6 launched on May 3 with even grander plans: to return material from the far side of the moon. Because this half never faces Earth, it is impossible to communicate directly with landers on the far side of the moon, making it difficult to reach successfully. The Chinese space agency used two moon-orbiting satellites, Queqiao and Queqiao-2, to stay in contact with Chang’e-6 during the mission.

The spacecraft spent several weeks in lunar orbit, then landed on the moon in June. It landed at a site on the edge of the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the oldest and deepest impact crater on the Moon.

Equipped with a mechanical scoop and a drill, Chang’e-6 spent two days collecting lunar rocks and dust from its surroundings and the subsurface of the moon. Those samples were then hidden in the spacecraft. A small rover attached to the side of the spacecraft took a picture of Earth with a raised Chinese flag.

Then, on June 3, a rocket on the spacecraft lifted off, sending the samples into orbit around the moon. The materials were reunited on June 6 with a spacecraft that had remained in orbit and was prepared to begin the journey back to Earth.

Sometime on Tuesday, the sample container will attempt to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. If the mission is as successful as Chang’e-4, China will recover the materials and begin scientific research of their contents.