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China has decided to reserve a place in the history of space: the first spacecraft to land on the dark side of the moon will be launched in December and another vehicle will be launched next year. Moon rocks have returned to Earth since 1976.
– Lunar missions
The two missions, the latest in the Chinese lunar exploration series (Chang & # 39; e), following the Chinese lunar gods, constitute a new interest in exploring our most heavenly bodies. relatives. Other global missions include the Indian Space Agency and private German companies to send automatic missions to the moon in 2019. In turn, the United States plans to send astronauts around the moon in 2023 and then land on its surface at the end of the decade. The moment is now conducive to new exploration missions on the moon Despite decades of study, the Earth's only natural moon is still full of mysteries and mysteries related to its formation and to the moon. history of the solar system. "There are many things we do not know," said Long Chao, scientist in planetary sciences at China Geological Sciences University in Wuhan. The researcher participated in two studies published in June and July in the journal Geophysical Research: Planitz, describing the landing sites of the Chinese "Qing-4 and 5" expeditions.
Scientists are eager to put their hands on the new moon rocks to discover the secrets that the moon still hides. "There is no doubt that the specimens that will be made by the Qing-5 mission will contain other types of rocks that we have not yet tested," said planetary scientist David Bluit of the Physics Laboratory. Applied from Johns Hopkins University to Laurel in an interview with Science Science. He added: "Imagine that you arrived on the ground and that you landed in Britain, and then you recorded all your findings in the field based on what you saw. will not be complete.
– The far side of the moon
The Qing-Y4 vehicle includes a landing craft and a mobile car that were developed to support the uninhabited Qing-y3 mission in 2013, China's first landing mission on the Moon and the first in the world since the 1970s. The ship and mobile van landed in 2013 in a large lunar lunar plain north, named Mary Emprium, where the vehicle measured the composition and thickness of the lunar soil and discovered the new possible type of volcanic rock.
This time, China plans to land its space systems on lunar sites that have not yet been explored. The Qing 4 mission aims to reach a crater larger, deeper and perhaps the oldest. known as the South Paul-Itken Basin. From the moon, which can not be detected from the Earth. The entire basin, with a width of 2,500 km and a depth of 8.2 km, is too vast to be explored by the van. For this reason, the mission of the Qing-4 mission will be limited to the exploration of the crater of volcano Von Kerman, a length of 186 000 km, located in the heart of the largest basin. It is thought that the tremendous shock that led to the formation of the south basin of Paul-Itken has dug parts of the lunar crust, the thick rock that has melted in the past and rests under the crust. Exploring this nozzle can open a window to identify the composition of the inner moon.
"The composition of the lunar cortex is the subject of much debate," says Zhao. For example, is it "wet" and rich in wet minerals or is it dry? If it was wet, how did the water survive despite the tremendous shock that would be responsible for the formation of the moon? The Qing-4 mission will not solve these riddles, but the measures it will provide can help determine the objectives of future observations.
– New monitoring techniques
Three cameras, an infrared spectrometer and two radar launchers, such as those used by the Qing-3 mission, will help the spacecraft to conduct its research in the mouth of the Von Kerman. The Qing-4 mission also includes new techniques, the most important of which is a Swedish instrument for studying the interaction of sun-charged atoms with the moon's surface, a German instrument for measuring radiation levels that can be important for future astronauts, and a container containing seeds and insect eggs to test the potential of life and plants. These insects and seeds are together on the moon.
Because the moon still has the same face as the Earth, astronauts will not be able to communicate directly with the Qing-4 mission, which will prompt the Chinese Space Agency to launch an industrial satellite at a point beyond the moon to send data and bidirectional signals between the surface of the moon. And the earth in May. The moon is known as Quikiao, followed by a legendary bridge called Magpie, which would extend once a year into the Milky Way to meet two lovers.
– lunar rocks
> Geological History: At some point in 2019, the Qing-5 will visit an area close to the moon that no spaceship or astronaut has ever reached.
To date, scientists have been studying rocks from lava fields formed early in the history of the Moon, about 3.5 million years ago. These rocks were brought to Earth by the Apollo missions of the United States that ended in 1972 and by the Luna missions of the Soviet Union that ended in 1976. Together, these missions returned more than 380 kilograms of lunar materials on Earth.
The Ching-5 mission will work on operating the chambers from lunar rocks and deep boreholes in an area of 58,000 square kilometers in an area known as "Romker" covered with minerals resulting from many periods of time. Volcanic activity. Then, the vehicle will pack about two kilograms of material and transport it into the rocket that will launch to meet the Chang-5 probe before returning to Earth.
A new spot: The lunar rocks that returned to the Luna missions of the Soviet Union and Apollo in the 1960s and 1970s originated from lava floods gathering around the moon's orbit. In 2013, the Chinese "Qing-3" mission landed in various areas of ancient floods in the Far North, but returned without samples. The Qing-5 mission will seek to return volcanic rocks from an area where no samples were previously collected. The study of samples from this region could reveal whether the moon has gone through periods of greater activity than scientists thought.
> Difficult access to new moon rocks: the opportunity to study these new rocks has sparked the enthusiasm of NASA researchers and other scientists. The former Apollo astronaut, Harrison (Jack) Schmidt, the only geologist on the moon, describes the return of the specimens with the "perpetual gift". "All my colleagues who work directly on the samples will certainly have the opportunity to preview them." New rocks ".
However, US scientists are having difficulty studying new samples because of Wolf's amendment, a 2011 federal budget clause that needs to be approved by Congress before cooperating with China or Chinese-owned companies .
It is difficult, but not impossible: American scientists could eventually join scientists from other countries able to cooperate directly with China, that is, using their colleagues as mediators. Scott Pace, Space Analyst, Executive Secretary of the National Board of Space, discusses the possibility that the United States will exchange Apollo samples with Qing-5 samples. For their part, the Chinese emphasize the importance of cooperation to understand the history of the moon.
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