In 2024, the fourth phase of China's lunar exploration program officially kicked off, and with the successful launch of Queqiao-2 and the completion of the deployment of the large elliptical frozen orbit, the real lunar exploration journey will also come!
The fourth phase of China's lunar exploration program mainly includes Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8, and of course, their common relay Xingqueqiao-2! On May 3, the Long March 5 and Chang'e-6 successfully lifted off, starting a 53-day lunar exploration journey! After a five-day long-distance attack, Chang'e-6 completed the near-moon braking on May 8, and with one foot of the brake, it entered a large elliptical circumlunar orbit of 200 kilometers at the perilunar point and 8,600 kilometers at the apogee lunar point.
At the apogee of 8,600 kilometers, Chang'e-6 also successfully released the international payload, a miniature remote sensing satellite from Pakistan! In the future, Chang'e-6 will go through two more near-moon brakings and adjust its orbit to a large elliptical orbit of 200 kilometers in 4 hours, 2200 kilometers, and a near-elliptical orbit of 2 hours and 200 kilometers!
We know that the entire mission cycle of Chang'e-6 is 53 days, including the launch into the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, the journey to the moon, landing and sampling, the take-off on the lunar surface, and the return to Earth. The entire mission cycle is very complex, and the slightest mistake can be a lose-lose situation, so Chang'e-6 is considered the most complex space exploration mission to date.
Chang'e-6's journey to the moon took only 5 days, and the sampling phase of lunar work will not be very long, the main time is consumed in the circumlunar flight, and Chang'e-6 will stay for nearly 20 days after entering a near-circular orbit of 2 hours and 200 kilometers!
Seeing this, many netizens may be very puzzled, Chang'e-6's lunar exploration journey took 53 days, and it took 20 days to stay in orbit around the moon, and according to the data, the Apollo 11 manned landing on the moon in the United States in the last century lasted only about 8 days, so where does the difference come from?
Some netizens say that the skills are not as good as people, this does not need to be considered, you must know that so far human beings have only made a soft landing on the far side of the moon, that is, China's Chang'e-4, and no other country has even dared to try to land on the far side of the moon, so there is no such thing as inferior technology.
The United States has never explored the far side of the moon, and it cannot compare with us in this regard. If it's not that the skills are not as good as others, is there another hidden story?
The United States carried out 7 manned lunar landings from 1969 to 1972, including the failure of Apollo 13, and successfully sent 12 astronauts to the surface of the moon 6 times.
Apollo 11 in 1969 was particularly eye-catching, as the first manned human journey to the moon, the eyes of the world were focused on it, Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon and left that footprint and said: This is a small step for me, but a giant leap for human civilization! Human civilization has truly set foot on celestial bodies beyond the earth.
Apollo 11 landed on the Silent Sea on the far side of the moon, and the entire journey to the moon took only 8 days, including 21 hours and 36 minutes on the lunar surface and 2 hours and 31 minutes on the lunar surface!
The Apollo 11 manned lunar journey took 8 days, far shorter than the 53-day lunar exploration journey of Chang'e-6.
Many netizens may have questioned that the US manned moon landing was fake, so the time is also fake. We won't discuss this possibility, it's a cliché, there's no point! In fact, there is nothing to compare between Chang'e-6 and Apollo 11, the form and purpose of the mission are completely different, and there are many different factors!
First of all, the landing site is different, Chang'e-6 is destined for the Apollo Basin in the Aitken impact crater on the far side of the moon, while Apollo 11 lands in the still sea on the far side of the moon. There is a big difference between them, the detection on the far side of the moon requires the signal relay of the relay star, the front side of the moon does not need it, they are all collected on the moon, Chang'e-6 takes 53 days, and the entire mission time of Chang'e-5 is 23 days, in fact, you can see the difference!
Chang'e-6 needs to be assisted by Queqiao-2, coupled with the influence of sunshine and other factors, and needs to wait for the right time to set the moon and land at the planned moon landing site.
Apollo 11 is different, you must know that it was in the context of the Cold War space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States and the Soviet Union launched a crazy exploration of the moon, and American and Soviet scientists even put forward the crazy idea of launching a nuclear bomb to the moon, just because they wanted to earn a reputation. Therefore, the Apollo manned lunar landing program is not so human-centered lunar exploration journey, and the manned lunar landing must be completed as quickly as possible, and the astronauts' time on the lunar surface will be shortened as much as possible.
We can see the photo below, the white cloth bag that appears in the picture may not be known to many people, in fact, it is "diapers", which were generated by astronauts in the process of going to the moon, and finally thrown to the surface of the moon, you can imagine that the spacecraft environment at that time was not so good!
In fact, the most critical thing in the whole lunar exploration journey is the demand for launch vehicles, Apollo manned moon landing relies on Saturn V, which is one of the most powerful rockets in human history, and it will be faster to rely on this super rocket to carry people to the moon.
What is more interesting is that the United States has returned to the moon in this century, and there is no Saturn V anymore, and the legend is that the technical drawings are lost, I don't know if it's true or not!
The whole process of sampling on the lunar back of Chang'e-6 is more complicated, in fact, it refers to the process of which to fight, and the pursuit of success rate and stability. The United States manned landing on the moon on the front of the moon, the process will be relatively simple, you can fall anywhere without too many requirements, and at the same time to minimize the mission time, this difference will come out, you don't have to worry about it!
Text/Science Black Hole, Image Source: Internet Invasion and Deletion.