China already has experience exploring the dark side of the moon. A mission was held there for several years Changhe 4. As part of it, a lander and a small lunar module Yutu-2 were sent. The Middle Kingdom is following suit and wants to be the first country in history to do so We will deliver samples of this part of the Silver Globe to Earth for research.
a task Zhang 6 It is scheduled to start in May this year. The lander will then be launched into space, which will then fly to the Moon and beyond You will land on his dark side. The project is led by a team of specialists, including those involved in: Zhang 5which made it possible to almost quickly deliver samples from the Silver Globe for research to Earth, which happened a few years ago.
Elements of the Chang'e 6 mission were delivered to the Wenchang Space Center on Hainan Island in January 2024.
The Chang'e 6 mission schedule assumes this It will last 53 days. After this time, the samples collected on the dark side of the Moon will return to Earth, where they will then go to laboratories and be thoroughly examined. The analysis will provide answers to questions related to the surface differences that occur between the two sides of the Earth's satellite.
A special lander is scheduled to land in the Apollo Basin area. The Chinese want to collect it from the surface About 2 kg of regolith. This will be done using a drill and a “spatula”. The mission will be supported by the Queqiao-2 satellite, which China plans to launch later this month or March. This is necessary because the dark side of the Moon is inaccessible from Earth and communication with this area requires an additional conductor.
The Chang'e 6 mission is very ambitious. The Chinese are showing an increasing interest in space, which we have been observing in recent years. This is evidenced not only by the recent lunar missions of the Middle Kingdom, but also by the Mars mission Tianwen-1 Or put a new one in Earth's orbit Tiangong Space Station.
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