Muthomi Ireri
China’s Chang’e 6 probe has made history by returning to Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon, marking a global first. The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region of northern China on Tuesday afternoon.
“I now declare that the Chang’e 6 Lunar Exploration Mission achieved complete success,” announced Zhang Kejian, Director of the China National Space Administration, during a televised news conference after the landing.
Chinese scientists expect the returned samples to include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock and other materials that could help answer questions about the geological differences between the moon’s near and far sides. The near side, visible from Earth, contrasts with the far side, which faces outer space and features mountains and impact craters.
The probe landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater over 4 billion years old. The collected samples likely come from different layers of the basin, providing insights into the moon’s geological history, including periods of volcanic activity.
While previous U.S. and Soviet missions have collected samples from the moon’s near side, the Chinese mission is the first to do so from the far side. “This is a global first in the sense that it’s the first time anyone has been able to take off from the far side of the moon and bring back samples,” noted Richard de Grijs, a professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University in Australia.
This lunar program is part of a growing space rivalry between China and other countries, including the U.S., Japan, and India. China has already established its own space station and regularly sends crews there.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping congratulated the Chang’e team, calling the mission a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts at becoming a space and technological power.”
The probe left Earth on May 3, and its 53-day journey included drilling into the moon’s core and collecting surface rocks. The samples are expected to help answer fundamental questions about the geological activity responsible for the differences between the moon’s two sides, explained Zongyu Yue, a geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In recent years, China has launched several successful moon missions, including the Chang’e 5 probe, which collected samples from the near side. The Chang’e 6 mission aims to gather material that might show evidence of ancient meteorite impacts, potentially shedding light on the early solar system. There’s a theory that the moon acted as a vacuum cleaner, attracting meteorites and debris that might otherwise have hit Earth, according to de Grijs, who is also executive director at the International Space Science Institute in Beijing.
China has indicated plans to share the samples with international scientists, although specific countries have not been mentioned.
Dj Vnyash
Silverio Omari
