At 7:38 p.m. on June 4, the Chang’e 6 carrying lunar samples took off from the backside of the Moon, and after the 3000N engine worked for about six minutes, it successfully sent the ascent vehicle into the scheduled circumlunar orbit.
From June 2 to 3, Chang’e 6 successfully completed intelligent and rapid sampling in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the moon’s far side, and encapsulated and stored the precious moon’s far side samples in the storage device carried by the ascent vehicle in a predetermined form. During the sampling and encapsulation process, the researchers, in the ground laboratory, simulated the geographic model of the sampling area and simulated the sampling based on the detector data transmitted back by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, providing important support for sampling decision-making and operation in various aspects.
Intelligent sampling is one of the core key links of the Chang’e 6 mission. The detector withstood the high temperature test on the back of the moon and collected lunar samples in two ways: drilling with drilling tools and taking samples from the table of the robotic arm, thus realizing multi-point and diversified automatic sampling.
The landing camera, panoramic camera, lunar soil structure detector, lunar mineral spectrum analyzer and other payloads configured on the Chang’e 6 lander were normally switched on, and scientific exploration was carried out according to plan, playing an important role in scientific exploration tasks such as the detection and study of the lunar surface topography and mineral components, and the detection of the shallow structure of the Moon. Before the probe was drilled for sampling, the Lunar Soil Structure Explorer analyzed and judged the underground lunar soil structure in the sampling area, providing data reference for sampling.
The international payloads carried by the Chang’e 6 lander, such as the ESA dedicated negative ion instrument and the French Lunar radon-measuring instrument, worked normally and carried out the corresponding scientific exploration tasks. Among them, the French Lunar Lunar radon-measuring instrument was switched on during the Earth-Moon transfer, the circumlunar phase and the lunar surface work section; and the ESA dedicated negative ion instrument was switched on during the lunar surface work section. The Italian passive laser retroreflector mounted on top of the lander became the position control point for distance measurements on the back of the Moon.
The Five-starred Red Flag carried by the Chang’e 6 lander was successfully unfurled on moon’s far side after the table fetch was completed. This is the first time for China to independently and dynamically display its national flag on moon’s far side. The flag is made of a new type of composite material and a special process. Due to the different locations of the moon landing, the Chang’e 6 national flag display system has been adapted and improved on the basis of the Chang’e 5 mission.
It is understood that this flag is the researchers through more than a year of research, the use of basalt lava drawing technology made, it has a stronger corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance and other excellent performance. Basalt stone from Hebei Weixian, the basalt back to the crushed, melted after pulling it into a hairline diameter of roughly one-third of the filaments, and then spun it into a line, woven into cloth.
Compared with the ground takeoff, the Chang’e 6 ascent vehicle does not have a fixed launch tower system, but uses the lander as a “temporary tower”. Compared with Chang’e-5′s takeoff from the lunar surface, Chang’e-6′s takeoff from the back of the moon cannot be directly supported by ground measurement and control, and needs to be assisted by the Queqiao-2 relay satellite to realize autonomous positioning and attitude fixing with the help of the special sensitivities carried by Chang’e-6, which makes the project even more difficult to implement. After ignition and takeoff, Chang’e 6 went through three phases of vertical ascent, attitude adjustment and orbital insertion, and successfully entered the scheduled circumlunar flight orbit.
Following that, the ascender will perform rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit with the orbiter and returner combination waiting in circumlunar orbit and transfer lunar samples to the returner; the orbiter and returner combination will fly around the Moon, waiting for a suitable time to return to carry out a lunar-terrestrial transfer, and near the Earth the returner will carry lunar samples and re-enter the atmosphere, with a plan to land in the landing site of Siziwangqi in Inner Mongolia.
What research will be conducted on the lunar soil brought back from Chang’e 6′s lunar back sampling? What are the characteristics of the Aitken Basin where Chang’e 6 landed for sampling this time? Why was this area chosen for the moon’s far side sampling?
It is reported that Chang’e 6 mission engineering deputy chief designer ground application system chief director Li Chunlai: Chang’e 6 is actually Chang’e 5 backup, we hope to choose a symmetrical point, chose the back of the moon’s South Pole – Aitken Basin pre-selected landing area. We hope to get the first sample of the moon’s far side for human beings, and we are also curious about how different the sample of the moon’s far side is from the front side.
Samples from the Moon are very precious, and samples from the moon’s far side are particularly mysterious. Chang’e 5 brought back 1,731 grams of samples, and China has now distributed 258 lunar samples in six batches to hundreds of scientific research teams, and has achieved a number of important results in a number of fields such as lunar formation, evolution and resource utilization, such as confirming that the age of the moon’s youngest basalt is 2 billion years, and postponing the end of the moon’s volcanic activity by about 800 million years. The age of the Moon’s youngest basalt was confirmed to be 2 billion years, and the end of the Moon’s volcanic activity was postponed by about 800 million years.
This time, Chang’e 6 is going to bring back samples from the moon’s far side , and what new research will be carried out? What preparations have been made by the Lunar Sample Laboratory?
Li Chunlai, Deputy Chief Designer of Chang’e 6 Mission Engineering and Chief Director of Ground Application System: The rock composition of the samples collected by Chang’e 6 is more likely to be basaltic material, and in the landing zone, we see that there are a lot of other types of material that may have been ejected from other places. These studies may explain the properties of samples from deep excavations in such a huge ring basin formed in the early solar system. This will be a great contribution to the study of the early evolution of the Moon, and even to the study of the early evolutionary history of the Earth. How old the sample is needs to be analyzed. However, its rock composition and age of formation should be different from that of the sample collected by Chang’e-5, which needs to be further studied and analyzed.
The Lunar Sample Laboratory (LSL) has made all the preparations for receiving, processing, preparing, analyzing and researching the samples, and is only waiting for the Chang’e 6 samples to arrive at the Laboratory, so that we can carry out in-depth scientific research work.
Shanghai Orisen New Material Technology Co., Ltd
M: +86 18683776368(also WhatsApp)
T:+86 08383990499
Email: grahamjin@jhcomposites.com
Address: NO.398 New Green Road Xinbang Town Songjiang District, Shanghai
Post time: Jun-13-2024