Chang'E-6's Success in Lunar Mission and Return
TapTechNews, June 5th. According to CCTV News reports, yesterday, Chang'E-6's ascent vehicle carrying lunar samples successfully took off from the far side of the moon and started its journey back to Earth. Currently, the Chang'E-6 ascent vehicle has entered the predetermined lunar orbit and is orbiting the moon.
Subsequently, the ascent vehicle will conduct a rendezvous and docking with the orbiter and the return vehicle assemblage waiting in the lunar orbit, and transfer the lunar samples to the return vehicle, which will be brought back to Earth by the return vehicle.
Ge Ping, the spokesperson of the Chang'E-6 mission and the deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Aerospace Engineering Center of the National Space Administration, said: After completing the sample transfer, the orbital-return assemblage is separated from the ascent vehicle, then the orbital-return assemblage will operate in the lunar orbit waiting for the monthly-earth transfer window, waiting about 14 days in the lunar orbit, and then the orbital-return assemblage enters the monthly-earth transfer orbit. At a height of about 5,000 miles (about 8047 kilometers) from the earth, the return vehicle and the orbiter are separated, and then the return vehicle enters the reentry and return phase, and finally lands in the predetermined landing area in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, completing this more than 50-day round-trip journey between the earth and the moon.
According to TapTechNews, the landing field in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, has an altitude of 1000 to 1200 meters and is a sandy grassland with a flat and open terrain. There are no large rivers and lakes. It belongs to a mid-temperate continental climate. It is dry and rainy throughout the year, and the air visibility is high. In addition, this area has a sparse population, with no more than 10 people per square kilometer, which is very suitable for spacecraft landing. From 1999 to 2016, the aerospace landing field in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, has long become the most important aerospace landing field in our country. Shenzhou-1 to Shenzhou-11 spaceships all landed successfully here.
On May 3rd, the Chang'E-6 detector was launched into the sky, starting the journey to the moon. After nearly monthly braking, the separation of the lander and the ascent vehicle assemblage and the orbiter and the return vehicle assemblage, it successfully landed in the preselected landing area in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on June 2nd.