China’s Chang’e-5 Mission Returns To Earth With Moon Samples

On December 17, China created history by becoming the world’s third country to have successfully brought back rocks from the moon. The Chang’e-5 capsule returned to Earth carrying with it moon samples, Chinese news agencies reported.

The lunar probe landed in Siziwang Banner, north of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The mission was named after China’s ancient goddess of the moon. The capsule was launched on November 24 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, Hainan.

On December 1, it landed on the near side of the moon, over a huge lava plain called Oceanus Procellarum or “Ocean of Storms.” And this was China’s third successful landing on the lunar surface in ten years. According to NASA researchers, the dark spot could be the result of a giant cosmic impact forming an ancient magma sea.

Samples from this region could tremendously help scientists study more about the origin of the moon and could be useful for future space missions to explore other planets.

The samples are going to be transported to Beijing where they will be analyzed. Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Chinese space agency, has said that some of the samples would be made available to researchers around the globe.

They are planning on building a scientific research station on the surface of the moon by cooperating with other countries. This could provide a shared platform for technological experiments and scientific exploration on the moon.

After the US and the Soviet Union, China was the third country to successfully bring back moon rock samples from the surface of the moon. The Apollo mission of the US saw 12 astronauts traveled to the Moon to retrieve 380kg of moon rock.

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