introduction
Time, embedded in the dance of the stars and moon, tells endless stories in a graceful and roundabout track.
What leads you and my eyes is the gentle time, and the footsteps as we move forward side by side gradually become clear.
On May 3, 2024, the Chang'e-6 probe was launched like a pearl breaking out of its shell, driving in the orbit of the moon, setting out for the sea of stars, and offering poems to her beloved.
The only task, like the call of the stars, is to face the difficulties, she has to dissect the soil on the back of the moon two meters deep.
The United States, under its fame, has also stopped here, how will Chang'e-6 give birth to new miracles?
The possibility of transcendence: Chang'e-6
The moon, nourished by ancient civilizations, she stubbornly held on between the stars, listening to the sighs of the stars.
The law locked by the tides obscured her other half of her face, and humans had no direct knowledge of the moon's back.
Until the space age, probes flying around the moon explored the far side of the moon, and despite the complexity of the dark areas and the deep lunar sea, it could not prevent it from becoming the focus of exploration.
Chang'e-6, like a brave man, stands on the threshold of this grand world, carrying the expectation of in-depth exploration of the moon, and clearly marking a peak in the history of astronautics.
When we look back and glimpse the exploration journey of Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5 in 2019, Chang'e-6 has a long way to go, and it is not only difficult to face, but also unprecedented exploration challenges.
Weighing 8.2 tons, the most complex and heavy probe on Earth, the most complex and heavy probe on Earth, had to carry a huge weight to fly 380,000 kilometers away to land on the silent moon.
To this end, the Long March 5 system launch vehicle came into being, which has become her strong backing.
Chang'e-6 consists of an orbiter, a returner, a lander and an ascent.
The orbiter, which takes over the task of the Earth-Moon transfer, includes power, communication, rendezvous and docking and other heavy burdens; the returner, which ensures that the lunar soil is properly stored after safe recovery; The lander helped Chang'e-6 successfully land on the moon and conduct sampling research.
The crucial ascent vehicle is responsible for delivering the lunar soil samples collected by Chang'e-6 to the orbiter for docking, and then transferring the soil to the returner.
Each component needs to carry a complex propulsion system that is independent and has completely different functions, allowing for precise cooperation and coordination.
The challenge for Chang'e-6 is also here, and it is undoubtedly a never-before-attempted task to sample lunar soil below 2 meters in a situation that cannot be imitated in the world, and sampling lunar soil at a depth of 2 meters could lead to a major breakthrough in the field of science and technology.
With the realization of this initiative, the in-depth knowledge of the Moon will become richer.
How to explore the unfathomable
The Chang'e-6 lunar landing site will be located at the south pole of the moon - the Aitken Basin, a vast land in the solar system known for its grand scale, a glorious chapter created by nature, a world that extends 2,500 kilometers radially and has a deep momentum of 13 kilometers, the deepest, most extensive and oldest traces on the moon.
Its elevation difference is extremely pronounced, with a length of 16.1 kilometers, symbolizing the most turbulent undulation on the moon and a deep scar that cannot be concealed.
The harsh environment at the south pole of the moon is a major challenge for the Chang'e-6 mission.
The temperature of the moon is like a crazy music, and the rhythm fluctuates, from an icy minus 180 degrees Celsius to a scorching minus 150 degrees.
The temperature changes dramatically between day and night, and even on the far side of the moon, the faintest signal from human communication will also cause great confusion and exploration here.
Fortunately, the mainland has long been ready for the lunar exploration program, and we have already launched the more powerful "Queqiao-2" relay satellite, which will provide strong communication support for this historic mission.
In order to successfully collect lunar soil, mainland aerospace expert Hu Hao and his entourage visited geologists and related scientific research institutions to understand and learn from the experience of digging soil on the earth.
After a series of studies such as how to dig the soil, what kind of equipment to use, and under what conditions to conduct soil sampling, Hu Hao believes that although space technology is needed to go to the moon, if we want to achieve the core task of "digging the soil", we still need to figure out the wisdom of real "geological researchers".
After learning from geological experts, combined with the practical experience of Chang'e-5 in carrying out lunar soil excavation missions, we finally designed a more suitable excavation method for Chang'e-6.
This includes soil sampling using both "grabbing" and "drilling", which involves "shoveling" and "grabbing" surface collection.
However, drilling lunar soil below 2 meters is an unprecedented challenge, and we have chosen the safest and most likely successful way to do it, which is to "drill".
The drill pipes of the drilling tools are up to 2 meters long, and they are equipped with a unique hollow structure inside, equipped with a small soft bag for filling the soil, which can collect the soil while drilling, and at the same time ensure the separation of the soil layers drilled at different depths, avoid mixing together, and preserve the bedding information of the lunar soil.
This is just the first step in the challenge we face, as the Moon has a harsh environment, with average annual temperatures between -150 and -180 degrees Celsius, and equipment exposed to such extreme environments requires extremely high tolerance.
In particular, the mission was located in the Antarctica-Aitken Basin, which is a "hell within a hell".
Due to its large drop, the moon's south pole terrain is very complex and direct sunlight is not available, and the extremes of temperature fluctuations in these shadowed areas are staggering.
Here, you can feel the minus 240 degrees Celsius like an ice age.
To make matters worse, there are many places that are shrouded in persistent shadows, and the temperatures here are almost unimaginably low.
Therefore, Chang'e-6's design and expansion modules must be stable in such extremely serious conditions, and must not suffer from performance degradation when solving core tasks.
Chang'e-6 engineers conducted countless experiments and rigorous verifications, and finally designed a grasping and punching module to meet the sampling needs, overcome adversity, and never slow down the pace of exploration for a moment.
The historical significance of Chang'e-6
The Moon, which seems to be as old as the Earth, has a completely different history.
It bears witness to the distance heat and cold of the Big Bang, but only informs us of the faint blue Earth.
The original intention of Chang'e-6 was to analyze this cold and hard, but touching historical information.
From the perspective of scientific and technological development, the exploration of the universe has become an important driving force for the continent's self-transcendence.
China's self-developed Chang'e-6 not only reflects the new look of the mainland's scientific and technological development, but also the launch and sampling work has also enabled China's aerospace industry to move to a new height.
Chang'e-6 has broken the international community's long-standing misunderstanding of China's space technology and strength, and enhanced the mainland's influence on the world.
epilogue
We have already trekked with Chang'e-6 and witnessed a legendary space journey.
Under the neon of this technology, we have an in-depth insight into the wisdom and fearlessness that Chang'e-6 has shown us.
At the same time, it is also the pinnacle of the mainland's aerospace technology, like a spectacular picture, depicting the dignity and majesty of the mainland's science and technology to reach the new peak.
Chang'e-6's pioneering and innovative spirit is worth learning from each of us, and we are equally good at using technology to broaden our horizons and solve problems on our own life path.
At such a special moment, let us take Chang'e-6 as a lesson and experience the shock and emotion brought to us by the power of science and technology.
It also allows us to further understand that in today's rapid development of science and technology, each of us has the responsibility to understand it and use it.
Only in this way can we continue to move forward in the wave of science and technology, and use technology to help our life, work and even dreams.
So, in your opinion, what breakthroughs will there be in the Chang'e-6 mission? How will her success affect our lives? Will it bring more possibilities to our lives? We look forward to you leaving your insights in the comment section. Let's look forward to the new discoveries of Chang'e-6 and use this as an opportunity to explore our new relationship with the universe.