Chinese Samples From The Moon

Yesterday, you got to read about how a Chinese submarine studies the deepest place in the Earth's oceans. Today it is time to talk about going to the opposite extreme. A few days ago a Chinese probe went to the Moon and plans to bring 2 kilograms of Moon samples back.

Image by Okan Caliskan from Pixabay

• Be also sure to check out my other posts and follow me @kralizec and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Kralizec Gaming Youtube Channel

The last thing that brought back samples from the Moon was Luna 24. That was back in 1976 and it only took back 170 grams of samples. So it is very understandable that we do not have many samples currently available for study. Thus, the scientific community is highly excited for the Chinese mission that promises to bring two kilograms of samples back from the Moon for study.

China is currently realizing its very ambitious Moon-research program. Until now, its peaks were the Lunar rover Chang'e 3 that landed on the dark side of the Moon in 2013 and Chang'e 4 that landed in the Von Kármán crater in 2018. Now China is starting a new phase of their Lunar program by sending a probe to the Moon and then sand samples of lunar soil back to the Earth. This probe includes a drill capable of drilling in different depths.

The probe should reach the Moon on the 30th of November during the Lunar day. As the probe isn’t equipped to work during the Lunar night it needs to launch back on time. During the Lunar day, the probe will take samples using both the already mentioned drill and an arm with a device that will take samples of the surface regolith.

After the probe is done gathering samples a module will launch that will carry the samples from the surface of the Moon to its orbit. There it will reconnect with the return modules and this module will take the samples back to Earth. When it reaches Earth’s orbit the return capsule will release and should land on the 16th of December in Inner Mongolia, China.

Sources:

• https://www.space.com/china-moon-sample-return-change-5-rollout

• If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other posts!