China offers glimpse of first moon samples brought to Earth in more than 45 years

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China shared a preview of the first moon samples to be brought back to Earth in more than 45 years.

The lunar regolith was collected by the Chang’e 5 National Mission which returned in December with 3.8 pounds of soil and rock from our natural satellite.

The images show samples as small as dust particles to larger pieces, as well as samples inside a crystal vessel that will be on display at the National Museum of China.

The vessel is designed as a ritual Chinese wine vessel, or “zun,” and contains moon dust in a sacred sphere that represents both the moon and the Chang’5 re-entry capsule.

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China shared a look at the first moon samples to be brought back to Earth in more than 45 years

China’s lunar mission was the first to return with samples since the former Soviet Union’s Lunar 24 robotic mission in 1976 and is now the 21st mission to land on the lunar surface.

The Chang’e-5 took off on top of the Long March-5 rocket in November from the Wenchang launch site in Hainan province in what was a major step forward in the country’s space program.

The probe targeted a 4,265-foot-high volcanic complex called Mons Rumker on the near side of the moon, an area known as Oceanus Procellarum, which in Latin means Ocean of Storms.

The area is “very unusual and far from where we landed before,” said James Head, professor of geological sciences at Brown University, following the November launch.

The lunar regolith was collected by the Chang’e 5 National Mission which returned in December with 3.8 pounds of soil and rock from our natural satellite.

“ This raises some really important questions, because these samples are actually going to tell us how young the moon has had volcanic activity, indicating how geologically active it has been recently, a critical question in the evolution of planets, ” he added. .

Images show samples as small as dust particles to larger pieces, as well as samples inside a crystal vessel

The probe returned on December 17 with moon rocks and soil safely stowed inside, and China provided the first official look at the cosmic wonders.

The age of rocks and soil should help scientists fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between roughly one billion and three billion years ago, Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at the ‘University of Washington in the United States. of St. Louis, said in an email.

They can also provide clues to the availability of economically useful resources on the moon such as concentrated hydrogen and oxygen, Jolliff said.

“These samples will be a treasure!” Jolliff said when the probe returned in December.

“I take my hat off to our Chinese colleagues for accomplishing a very difficult mission; the science that emerges from the analysis of returned samples will be a legacy that will last for many, many years and, hopefully, involve the international community of scientists ”.

The age of the rocks and soil should help scientists fill a knowledge gap about the moon’s history between around one billion and three billion years ago.

The probe targeted a 4,265-foot-high volcanic complex called Mons Rumker on the near side of the moon, an area known as Oceanus Procellarum, which stands for Ocean of Storms.

The image shared by China shows samples of fine, grainy material, as well as pieces of basalt glass formed on the surface by lunar volcanism, according to the image description.

Part of the soil collected in 2020 will be on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing, CGTN said in a statement.

The elaborate 38.44-centimeter-high container is a nod to the average distance between Earth and the Moon, which is 384,400 kilometers.

It is also 22.89 centimeters wide, symbolizing the duration of the Chang’e-5 mission from launch to landing, which is 22.89 days.

“Eighty percent of the samples will be used for scientific research,” Pei Zhaoyu, deputy chief designer of China’s CNSA Phase-3 lunar exploration program, said at a press conference on Jan. 18. The remaining 20% would be saved permanently. storage room.

CHINA INCREASES ITS PLAN TO BECOME A SPACE SUPERPOWER WITH THE MARS AND MOON MISSIONS

Chinese space agency officials are striving to become a space superpower alongside the United States and Russia.

They’ve already sent the first lander to explore the other side of the Moon – sharing photos of the part of our closest neighbor that we rarely see on the Chang’e-4 mission.

In November 2020, they sent the Chang’e-5 space probe to the moon to collect and return the first samples of lunar soil in 45 years.

This was done in collaboration with the European Space Agency which provided tracking information for the Chinese spacecraft.

Chang’e-6 will be the first mission to explore the south pole of the Moon and is expected to launch in 2023 or 2024.

Chang’e-7 will study the earth’s surface, composition and space environment as part of a global mission, according to the Chinese space authority, while Chang’e-8 will focus on technical analysis of the surface .

China is also reportedly working on building a moon base using 3D printing technology and sending a future crewed mission to the surface.

Mission number eight will likely lay the groundwork for this task, as it will focus on verifying the technology reserved for the project.

The CNSA is also building a space station orbiting the Earth where Chinese astronauts will conduct science experiments, similar to the ISS crew.

The agency also launched a mission to Mars in the summer of 2020 that will see them land a rover on the surface of the Red Planet in February 2021.

China is also reportedly working on a project to build a solar power generator in space, which would bring energy back to Earth and become the largest man-made object in orbit.

They also have a number of ambitious space science projects, including satellites to search for signs of gravitational waves and Earth observation spacecraft to monitor climate change.

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