Its destination is the Aitken Basin near the South Pole on the far side of the Moon, which is the oldest and deepest impact crater basin on the Moon, and the lunar samples collected by Chang'e-6 will help mankind have a more comprehensive understanding of the Moon, understand the origin and evolution of the Moon, and are of great significance to the study of planetary evolution and the origin of the solar system.
Chang'e-5 successfully brought back 1,731 grams of samples from the lunar surface, which also means the successful conclusion of the third phase of China's lunar exploration program, and the successful launch of Queqiao-2 also officially started the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project. Now the first exploration journey of the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project has begun, the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket has successfully lifted off with Chang'e-6, and Chang'e-6 has also embarked on a 380,000-kilometer journey to the moon!
Of course, the road to be traveled by Chang'e-6 is much longer than 380,000 kilometers! Mankind has conducted a total of 10 lunar samples so far, including six successful manned lunar landings during NASA's Apollo manned lunar landing, and the astronauts "carried" back 380 kilograms of lunar samples from the lunar surface.
During the same period, the Soviet Union did not achieve a manned landing on the moon, but it also brought back a small number of lunar samples from the lunar surface three times through unmanned probes, accumulating about 300 grams three times. The most recent was China's Chang'e-5, which brought back 1,731 grams of lunar samples from the surface of the moon.
Chang'e-6 will become the 11th lunar sampling of humans, and the first 10 samples were all taken on the front side of the moon without exception, and the destination of Chang'e-6 for the 11th time is the far side of the moon. The back of the moon is a mysterious area for mankind, only China's Chang'e-4 successfully conquered the back of the moon and made history by making a soft landing on the far side of the moon, and now China will go to the back of the moon again, and to complete the sampling work there, it is worth looking forward to!
We know that the Moon is tidally locked by the Earth, its rotation period and orbital period are strictly equal, and one side of the Moon will always have its back to the Earth, and we will never be able to see the back of the Moon on Earth.
Chang'e-4 was the first probe to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon, and now Chang'e-6 will be the second, and thankfully they are all from China!
We can't see the far side of the moon, so the probe on the far side of the moon naturally can't directly establish contact with the ground control station, and can only rely on relay satellites! Chang'e-4 mainly relies on the Queqiao relay star, which was launched and docked at 2 Lagrange points of the Earth-Moon system in advance, providing services for the Chang'e-4 lander and the lunar rover for a long time!
The fourth phase of the lunar exploration project has its own special relay satellite, Queqiao-2 has completed the launch and deployment ahead of schedule, it will serve Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8, of course, the Queqiao relay satellite has passed the design cycle, and Queqiao-2 will also provide services for Chang'e-4!
Queqiao-2 is docked in a large elliptical frozen orbit around the moon, waiting for the arrival of Chang'e-6, which has already completed the signal communication test with Chang'e-6, and now it can be said that everything is ready only for the safe arrival of Chang'e-6!
The Chang'e-6 trip to the moon was not alone, and it was accompanied by ESA's lunar negative ion analyzer, France's radon detector, Italy's laser corner reflector, and Pakistan's CubeSat.
On the fairing of the Long March 5 Yao-8 launch vehicle, we see the logos of three institutions, in addition to the logo of the Chinese space agency, the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, the European Space Agency and the French National Centre for Space Research.
Therefore, the journey of Chang'e-6 to the moon is not lonely, and there are other four-party payloads to accompany you! Many friends may wonder why Chang'e-6 should go to the moon with additional payloads from other Quartet, just to help others?
In fact, there is nothing strange about this, the Chang'e-6 mission provides an open opportunity for international cooperation, and it is natural that foreign payloads will follow Chang'e-6 to the moon together, which is also an effective way to highlight the rise of China's aerospace development.
It's just that some netizens think that the ESA is more conspicuous, after all, the ESA has failed China's manned space flight before! Ye Guangfu, the commander of the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft, has experience in cooperating with foreign astronauts in training, and he is mainly an ESA astronaut.
Everyone has always thought that the first to board the Chinese space station will be ESA astronauts, but the result is very disappointing, the head of ESA publicly announced that he will not send astronauts to carry out the Chinese space station mission, their main experience on the ISS, first of all, economic support, and secondly, there is no green light politically!
In fact, to put it bluntly, ESA wants to follow in the footsteps of its big American brother, and from time to time it has to show its loyalty!
Of course, this is no loss for China, China's aerospace has always adhered to a win-win attitude of cooperation, although ESA shook us on the space station manned spaceflight, but this cannot be a reason for us to reject ESA's cooperation with the Chang'e-6 mission, of course, we do not disdain to do so, cooperation can be win-win, especially in the field of space exploration!
Text/Science Black Hole, the picture source is invaded and deleted on the Internet!