on December 4, 2020, by the China National Space Administration
(CNSA) via CNS shows a Chinese national flag unfurled from the
Chang’e-5 lunar probe. China National Space Administration (CNSA)
via CNS / AFP
A Chinese flag has been planted on the moon after the
country completed a space probe to the surface of the Moon, an
ambitious effort to bring back the first lunar samples in four
decades.
Beijing is looking to catch up with the US and Russia after
taking decades to match its rivals’ achievements and has poured
billions into its military-run space programme.
The Chang’e-5 spacecraft, named after the mythical Chinese Moon
goddess, left the Moon at 1510 GMT Thursday, said China’s
space agency.
A module carrying lunar rocks and soil was launched into orbit
by a powerful thrust engine, officials said of the mission that
landed Tuesday on the Moon.
Video footage from China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed
the probe taking off from the surface of the Moon in a bright burst
of light.
READ ALSO: Chinese Space Probe Completes Moon
Mission
The space agency said that “before lift-off, the Chinese flag
was raised on the moon’s surface”.
It added that this was the first time that China had
achieved take-off from an extraterrestrial body.
The module then must undergo the delicate operation of linking
up with the part of the spacecraft that is to bring the specimens
back to Earth, official news agency Xinhua reported.
Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the
Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
If the return journey is successful, China will be
only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon,
following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and
1970s.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Space dreams
This is the first such attempt since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24
mission in 1976.
The spacecraft’s mission was to collect two kilograms (4.5
pounds) of material in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum — or
“Ocean of Storms” — a vast, previously unexplored lava plain,
according to the science journal Nature.
Xinhua, which called Chang’e-5 “one of the most complicated and
challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history”, reported the
probe worked for about 19 hours on the Moon.
The samples were to be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed
to land in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, according
to US space agency NASA.
Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China’s “space
dream”, as he calls it, have been put into overdrive.
China hopes to have a crewed space station by 2022 and
eventually send humans to the Moon.
China launched its first satellite in 1970, while human
spaceflight took decades longer — with Yang Liwei
becoming China’s first “taikonaut” in 2003.
A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of
the Moon in January 2019 in a global first that boosted
Beijing’s aspirations to become a space superpower.
The latest probe is among a slew of ambitious targets, which
include creating a powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads
heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle,
a lunar base, and a permanently crewed space station.
China’s taikonauts and scientists have also talked up crewed
missions to Mars.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/12/05/china-plants-flag-on-the-moon/