Not long ago, Chang'e-6 returned to Earth with soil on the far side of the moon. This is the highest level of lunar exploration mission in China's aerospace history so far, not only breaking through the design and control technology of the lunar retrograde orbit, but also breaking through the intelligent sampling technology on the back of the moon and the take-off and ascent technology on the back of the moon, and realizing the world's first automatic sampling and return on the far side of the moon. How many of the moon's secrets will be revealed for us to explore the universe?
Precise obstacle avoidance and intelligent sampling
Chang'e-6 successfully brought back lunar soil
On June 25, 2024, the Inner Mongolia Siziwangqi Space Landing Site welcomed a special "guest": after 53 days of space odyssey, the Chang'e-6 returner successfully landed and brought back a precious "express" to Earth - a lunar sample from the back of the moon, which is also the first time that humans have achieved sampling and return from the back of the moon.
The precious lunar samples will provide more valuable data and information about the moon, and are expected to deepen the study of the origin and evolution history of the moon.
The pre-selected landing area of Chang'e-6, the South Pole on the far side of the moon and the Aitken Basin, has a drop of more than 10 kilometers, which is like landing a small truck in the mountains, which requires not only precise obstacle avoidance, but also advanced guidance, navigation and control systems to ensure a safe landing.
Experts have repeatedly demonstrated in the test site of Tongji University, large and small wooden planks through different heights and angles to simulate the undulations of the ground seen from the air.
After the smooth landing of Chang'e-6, sampling on the back of the moon became more arduous. Limited by the relay communication time on the far side of the moon, Chang'e-6 uses fast intelligent sampling technology to shorten the effective working time of lunar surface sampling to less than 20 hours, and collects lunar samples through two methods: drilling sampling with drilling tools and sampling from the surface of robotic arms.
Compared with Chang'e-5, Chang'e-6 has been greatly improved in terms of intelligence and autonomy.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Ma Ruqi: As long as one command is issued, it will connect the entire task, such as touching the moon, sampling to lofting, and only one command is needed to connect it all and execute it in the whole process, so that the efficiency is improved.
The mysterious and distant moon is shielded by magnetic fields and atmosphere, and the lunar soil is directly exposed to the solar wind and other cosmic radiation. The study of lunar soil will provide a powerful help for mankind to understand the long-term evolution of the Earth's space environment and solar activities. It has been 20 years since China's lunar exploration program was established.
Wu Weiren, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chief Designer of China's Lunar Exploration Program: I think in the past 20 years, we have gone ahead in some aspects from scratch and from zero to the present.