The moon god in ancient China returns to earth .. what is the story?

Subscribe to receive the most important news

–
–

China has become the third country in the world to collect samples from the surface of the Moon, duplicating the achievement of the United States and the former Soviet Union, which was achieved in the 1970s.

And the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) announced, on Wednesday, that the Chinese probe “Chang’e-5” landed in the Inner Mongolia region in the north of the country, returning from a 3-week trip to the moon.

“Chang’e-5” consists of several parts, which are an orbiter (that remained in the moon’s orbit during the implementation of the mission), a lunar lander (it landed on the moon’s surface), and an ascent unit (from the surface to the moon’s orbit).

The probe “Chang’e” – named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess – took off from the launch site of the Wenchang spacecraft on the island of Hainan in southern China on November 24, and landed on the surface of the moon in early December, on a huge lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum. Or “a sea of ​​storms.” Where that region consists of a sea of ​​magma.

The return capsule with the probe – which carries the samples – will be transported to Beijing, for analysis and studies, and samples from this region can help scientists to know the materials that make up the moon.

China will also provide some samples for scientists in other countries, Bai Zhaoyu, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, told the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, that Chinese scientists are already making plans to explore the moon in the future – including a project. To build a scientific research station on the moon, and he expressed his hope “to cooperate with other countries to build an international lunar scientific research station, which could provide a common platform for scientific exploration on the moon and technological experiments.”

But China has no lead in this achievement. In the seventies, competition was fierce between the United States and the Soviet Union, to bring samples from the moon.

And over the course of six flights from 1969 to 1972, within the Apollo space program, which was credited with setting the first human feet on the surface of the moon, and Washington was able to collect 382 kg of rocks and soil.

The Soviet Union, for its part, sent three successful robotic missions in the seventies to collect samples, the last of which was “Luna 24” in 1976, which collected 170.1 grams, making China the first country to collect samples from the moon in the world in 44 years.