At 17:27 on May 3, the Chang'e-6 probe was successfully launched by the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, accurately entering the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and the launch mission was a complete success. The Chang'e-6 probe started the world's first sample return journey on the far side of the Moon, and the pre-selected landing and sampling area is the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon.
After about 37 minutes of flight, the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket separated and sent the Chang'e-6 probe directly into a predetermined Earth-Moon transfer orbit at a perigee altitude of 200 kilometers and an apogee altitude of about 380,000 kilometers. The Chang'e-6 probe consists of an orbiter, a returner, a lander, and an ascender. Subsequently, with the support of the ground TT&C and the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, the Chang'e-6 probe will go through the processes of Earth-Moon transfer, near-moon braking, circumlunar flight, landing and descent, and soft landing on the lunar surface, collecting lunar surface rock and lunar soil samples in a pre-selected area on the far side of the Moon, and carrying out scientific exploration at the same time. After the sampling and encapsulation, the ascender will take off from the lunar surface, then rendezvous and dock in lunar orbit and transfer the samples to the returner, which will undergo a moon-to-earth transfer, re-enter the Earth at close to the second cosmic velocity, and finally return to Earth with precious lunar samples.
According to reports, the whole process from the launch of the Chang'e-6 mission to the sampling return is about 53 days, with a long mission cycle, many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulties, and each stage is interlocking. Compared with the Chang'e-5 mission, which achieved the return of samples from the front of the Moon in 2020, the Chang'e-6 mission needs to carry out the first sample return on the far side of the Moon with the support of the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, breaking through key technologies such as the design and control of the retrograde lunar orbit, intelligent rapid sampling on the back of the moon, and take-off and ascent on the back of the moon. At the same time, the Chang'e-6 mission will carry out on-site investigation and analysis of the landing area on the far side of the moon, laboratory analysis and research of lunar samples, and other scientific explorations, so as to deepen the study of the origin and evolution history of the moon.
In addition, the Chang'e-6 mission has carried out practical international cooperation. In April 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) issued the "Announcement on International Payload Cooperation Opportunities for the Chang'e-6 Mission", and through the collection and selection of proposals for two batches of international payload carrying projects, four international carrying projects were finally determined, including the ESA Lunar Surface Negative Ion Analyzer, the French Lunar Radon Detector, the Italian Laser Corner Reflector, and the Pakistan CubeSat. Among them, the ESA Lunar Surface Negative Ion Analyzer will detect negative ions on the lunar surface and study the interaction mechanism between plasma and the lunar surface; the French Lunar Radon Detector will carry out in-situ detection of radon isotopes on the lunar surface to study the transport and diffusion mechanism of volatiles in the lunar environment; the Italian laser corner reflector plans to use its positioning on the far side of the Moon to carry out joint ranging and positioning research with other lunar exploration missions; and the Pakistani CubeSat will carry out an in-orbit imaging mission to verify the lunar orbit detection technology of the nanosatellite.
On May 3, the China National Space Administration held the Chang'e-6 International Payload Symposium in Haikou. About 50 international friends from 12 countries, including Pakistan, France and Italy, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations and ESA, gathered in Hainan to discuss cooperation and witness the launch of the Chang'e-6 mission.
The Long March 5 carrier rocket is the mainland's first new-generation high-thrust carrier rocket with a core stage diameter of 5 meters, with a total length of about 57 meters, a take-off weight of about 870 tons, a take-off thrust of more than 1,000 tons, a low-earth orbit carrying capacity of up to 25 tons, and a geosynchronous orbit carrying capacity of up to 14 tons, and completed its first flight in 2016. Due to the continuous change of the relative position of the Earth and the Moon, in order to ensure the on-time launch of the rocket, the model team applied the "narrow window multi-orbit" launch technology, and designed a total of 10 lunar orbits for the rocket in a 50-minute window of two consecutive days to improve the probability and reliability of the launch. At the same time, the R&D team continued to optimize the launch site process, shortening it from nearly 60 days to 43 days when Chang'e-5 was launched. This is the 519th launch of the Long March series of launch vehicles.
The lunar exploration project is organized and implemented by the China National Space Administration. In the Chang'e-6 mission, the lunar exploration and space engineering center of the China National Space Administration will undertake the overall project; the probe and carrier rocket will be developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Space Technology Research Institute and the launch vehicle technology research institute respectively; the launch, tracking, control, and recovery work will be completed by China's Wenchang Space Launch Site, Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, Xi'an Satellite Tracking and Control Center, Yuanwang Survey Ship, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and other units; and the ground application system will be mainly undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Reporter of Jiangsu Radio and Television Financial Media News Center|Zheng Wei, Zhang Binwei, Comprehensive|China's Aerospace Correspondents|Cai Jinman, Yang Lu, Li Yi, Wang Hao, Editor|Wei Wei Attention