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France relied on China to achieve its first moon landing, and the United States is really panicked!
If we don't hurry up, I am afraid that China will send all the global villages to the moon.
On May 3, 2024, the mainland Chang'e-6 probe departed aboard the Long March 5 to embark on a 53-day business trip to space.
The destination of Chang'e-6's mission is the far side of the moon, and it plans to collect lunar soil in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, which is also the first time that humans have sampled the far side of the moon.
Today, Chang'e-6 has successfully reached the orbit around the moon and released Pakistan's CubeSat on May 8, 2024, putting Pakistan on the track of a space power.
CubeSat is a small satellite, the reason why it is called "cube" is because its configuration unit is a cube of 10 centimeters, how small is this kind of satellite?
According to the classification standards of the space industry, small satellites weighing 1000-100 kg, microsatellites weighing 100-10 kg, nanosatellites weighing 10-1 kg, and picosatellites weighing 1-0.1 kg.
The first batch of CubeSats in history was successfully launched in 2003, and as of January 2024, a total of 2,323 CubeSats have been launched worldwide.
However, although there are many CubeSats launched around the world, there are very few countries that can afford to send CubeSats to the moon, and Pakistan has taken a big step forward by sending the first CubeSats to orbit around the moon.
When Chang'e-6 released the Pakistani CubeSat, the Pakistani people cheered, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said excitedly that the friendship between China and Pakistan has "transcended the border and reached space".
However, Chang'e-6 not only brought the CubeSat of Pakistan, but also several other "European friends" - ESA's lunar surface negative ion analyzer, France's radon detector, and Italy's laser corner reflector.
It is worth mentioning that this was France's first moon landing, and perhaps even France itself did not expect that the first moon landing would actually take China's "free ride".
In fact, Sino-French space cooperation has been going on for many years. As early as 1997, France signed a cooperation agreement with us to cooperate in the fields of manned spaceflight and deep space exploration.
In 2018, the Sino-French Oceanographic Satellite was successfully launched, which is also the first satellite cooperated by the mainland and France, and after successful delivery, it will continue to observe the wind and waves on the ocean surface in an orbit 500 kilometers from the earth, providing data support for marine disaster prediction.
In 2023, on the occasion of French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to China, the mainland gave a 1.5-gram lunar sample to France as a "souvenir", which made French scientists excited, and they are very much looking forward to the cooperation of Chang'e-6 in 2024.
The French radon detector will detect radon isotopes on the surface of the moon. Many friends may be confused about "radon", but in fact, it can be found everywhere around us.
Radon is not a good thing, though. It is a natural radioactive inert gas derived from the decay of radium and thorium, which is colorless and odorless, but can quietly kill people, and is no less harmful than formaldehyde, and is a carcinogen labeled by WHO.
The main sources of radon are building and finishing materials, as well as underground rocks and soils. The house was built on soil with a high radon content, and it spilled into the house along cracks in the ground; The granite, brick and sand, etc., used in the construction of houses, also have a certain amount of radon.
When large amounts of radon accumulate indoors, it can be inhaled into the respiratory tract by the human body, causing harm to the body.
Of course, we say "massively". Generally speaking, many homes are equipped with ventilation systems and supporting air purification devices, and the impact of radon will be much smaller. Studying radon on the Moon can further understand the transport model of lunar gases.
In addition, in June 2024, the Sino-French astronomical satellite will be launched to conduct in-depth research on the mysteries of the universe such as gamma-ray bursts, cosmic rays and dark energy.
It can be said that Sino-French space cooperation will reach a new level in 2024.
Among the many cheers, only the head of NASA had a sad face.
You must know that the U.S. plan to return to the moon has failed several times in a row, and the Odysseus lunar lander, which "overturned" on the surface of the moon in early 2024, is still the product of a private American space company.
However, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is already very satisfied, after all, this is the first successful moon landing in the United States since the 70s of the last century, after 50 years, even if it is only a lunar lander.
It's just that every time I see China announce the progress of the moon landing, it makes the United States extremely nervous. Just after China's Chang'e-4 successfully attempted to land on the far side of the moon, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence publicly stated: "We are in the space race, just like we were in the 1960s, and success or failure is even more important."
As we all know, the United States spent a lot of money to land on the moon in order to race against the Soviet Union, and now more and more countries are joining the lunar exploration team, is it still for the space race?
Actually, the moon has its own charm.
It is first and foremost a "mine" to be developed, containing abundant water, gold, platinum and rare earth resources, which can be used as a reserve energy source for the earth's resources, especially the huge helium-3 resources on the moon, which is the first choice for clean energy in the future.
In addition, the Moon is also a transit point for humans to explore other planets, and through the Moon as a springboard, we have the opportunity to explore more distant planets, which is the first step for humanity to truly step into deep space.
The most important thing is that the scientific and technological progress brought about by scientific exploration will definitely be translated into civilian use in the future, and it will really land in the lives of ordinary people, although this speed may not be so fast.
For example, the power technology used in the Chang'e-3 probe has given birth to more than a dozen combustion technologies in the research and development process, which have been applied to chemical plants, oil refineries and other plants, effectively reducing the emission of harmful substances to the atmosphere.
In the future, there will be more and more aerospace science and technology, from space to the earth, into thousands of households, to improve people's lives.
Therefore, deep space exploration is not far away from us, and it is even closely related to us. Now that Chang'e-6 has departed, the mainland lunar exploration program continues to advance, and I believe that in the near future, we can see the footprints of the Chinese on the moon.
Resources:
[1] Aerospace Science Popularization - A Quick Understanding of Chang'e-6's Moon-back "Treasure Digging" Journey, Beijing Association for Science and Technology, 2024.05.09
[2] Why do we want to explore the moon, Science and Technology Daily, 2013.12.06
[3] Foreign media pay close attention to Chang'e-6's "Lunar Journey" - the first human lunar back sampling is pinned on high hopes|Today's Perspective, Science and Technology Daily, 2024.05.10