China brought soil from the far side of the Moon. This is an unprecedented achievement and a huge revolution in the space race.

If space is an amphitheater in which the world’s most developed countries compete to demonstrate their technological superiority, then China has just delivered a decisive blow with the triumphant return of the Chang’e-6 probe and the first samples of the hidden side of the Moon.

An unprecedented achievement. After a series of painstaking in-flight maneuvers, including capsule separation, braking and reentry, the Chang’e 6 probe made a perfect landing Tuesday morning in the Inner Mongolia desert, where a rescue team was stationed.

The capsule was taken to Beijing for opening. Inside are the first soil samples collected by humans on the far side of the Moon, a haul of enormous scientific value.

53 days of glory. Launched on May 3, the Chang’e-6 probe passed several critical stages with surgical precision. In the first stage, it completed the Earth-Moon transition, the close deceleration of the satellite and the separation of its different modules, two of which landed together at the Moon’s South Pole, on the far side of the Moon.

The Queqiao-2 satellite in lunar orbit played a critical role in the maneuver, allowing mission controllers to communicate with the Aitken Basin, which has no direct line of sight to Earth.

The landers and ascent modules landed on the lunar soil on June 2 and began collecting samples using a robotic arm and drill. Two days later, the ascent module with its cargo of materials took off from the Moon and re-docked with the returning orbiter, whose journey today ended with the triumphant landing of samples in China.

China is not failing. The 53-day mission was a resounding success in a year when all lunar missions failed, most of them led by private companies. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has been preparing for this for years:

• Chang’e 1 (2007): Orbited the Moon and mapped its surface.
• Chang’e 2 (2010): took high-resolution images of the lunar soil.
• Chang’e 3 (2013): completed the first soft landing of a Chinese probe on the near side of the Moon (and the first since the Soviet Luna 24 mission in 1976) and launched the Yutu rover.
• Chang’e 4 (2018): Made the first-ever landing on the far side of the Moon and deployed the Yutu-2 rover.
• Chang’e 5 (2020): Collected the first lunar samples from the near side of the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 and brought them back to Earth.

The international cooperation. But Chang’e 6 was not an exclusively Chinese mission. The probe carried several payloads from international partners, such as a Pakistani cubesat deployed in lunar orbit, and scientific instruments developed by Sweden, France and Italy.

Sample cost. Samples collected from the far side of the Moon are of particular value to the scientific community. This region, less eroded by ancient lava flows than the near side, could help scientists fill gaps in their understanding of the Moon’s formation and evolution.

China will share some of the samples with its partners, with the possible exception of the United States, which prohibits its scientists from collaborating with China. However, NASA has already made an exception for the Chang’e-5 samples.

Future missions. After its participation in the Chang’e-6 project, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite will continue to collect data from the Moon and deep space using its instruments.

China will launch at least two new probes to explore the Moon’s South Pole. Chang’e 7 will focus on finding resources, while Chang’e 8 will test technologies for building a lunar base, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

Image | CNSA, Xinhua

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