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According to official Chinese media, China on Tuesday managed to land a spacecraft on the moon, as part of a landmark mission to bring back samples from its surface.
China launched the investigation (Chang’e-5) on November 24.
The Chang’e-5 mission seeks to collect materials from the moon’s surface to help scientists learn more about the origin of the moon.
The unmanned mission will attempt to collect two kilograms of samples in an area previously unloaded by vehicles, in a huge lava plain known as the “storm ocean”.
If the mission is successful, it will only make China the third country to bring in samples from the moon, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union.
The spacecraft that landed on the moon is one of the many spacecraft deployed by the probe (Chang’e-5).
Upon landing, the spacecraft is supposed to dig into the ground with a robotic arm, then transfer soil and rock samples to an ascending vehicle that launches and merges with an orbital unit.
Chinese Central Television said the spacecraft will start collecting samples from the moon’s surface within the next two days. The samples will be transferred to a capsule for the flight back to Earth and landing in Inner Mongolia, China.
China made its first moon landing in 2013. In January
(January) last year, the probe (Chang’e-4) managed to land on the other side of the moon’s surface, the first space probe to do so.
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