Chang’e-6 launch: What to anticipate

The mission

The Chang’e-6 spacecraft consists of 4 separate components: an orbiter, lander, ascender, and reentry module. After launch, Chang’e-6 will journey to the Moon and enter lunar orbit. The spacecraft’s lander and ascender will journey to the ground, whereas the orbiter and reentry module maintain in orbit.

The lander and ascender will contact down throughout the southern part of Apollo crater, all through the SPA basin. They’ll collect 2 kilograms (4.4 kilos) of lunar supplies using a drill and scoop. The ascender will then blast once more into lunar orbit and swap the samples to the reentry module. The orbiter will carry the service module once more to Earth and launch it into the setting, the place it ought to parachute to a young landing.

The whole mission is predicted to last 53 days, for for much longer than Chang’e-5’s 23-day nearside sample return mission. Whereas it is on the Moon’s far side, Chang’e-6 will discuss with Earth by the use of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite tv for pc television for computer, which launched in March 2024. Queqiao-2 is equipped with considered one of many largest parabolic antennas ever despatched previous Earth, with a diameter of 4.2 meters (13.8 ft).

The science

The samples Chang’e-6 returns to Earth will current new insights proper right into a messy interval of Photograph voltaic System historic previous.

A number of the Moon’s impression basins formed about 3.9 billion years prior to now when huge objects smashed into the Moon all through an event usually often known as the Late Heavy Bombardmentor lunar cataclysm.

What prompted so many impacts to occur at roughly the similar time? There are two principal theories. The first is that the orbits of the large planets shifted, flinging leftover planet-forming provides in the direction of the inner planets, producing a spike in impacts.

The second precept is that the Late Heavy Bombardment was not a spike the least bit. Instead, it would signify the tip of an prolonged interval of steadily declining impacts.

We’re in a position to test these theories with samples from the SPA basin, which dominates the far side of the Moon. The basin is about 4.26 billion years earlier, predating the near-side impression basins.

Was the SPA formed as part of the Late Heavy Bombardment? Or was it a separate event? By buying precise dates for the basin and the craters overlying it, we are going to increased understand the Moon’s historic previous.

This moreover has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth. It’s attainable that asteroids carried water and pure provides to Earth in the middle of the Late Heavy Bombardment. Understanding the timing and circumstances of this event is crucial for unpacking our origin story.