The Chinese probe launched in early May landed on the far side of the Moon

Chang’e 6 will attempt to collect lunar material and conduct other experiments in its landing zone, in particular to better understand how the Moon was formed.

A probe launched at the beginning of May by China landed on Sunday June 2 on the far side of the Moon in order to collect samples, which constitutes progress for the country’s ambitious program which intends to catch up with the United States and Russia. The Chang’e 6 probe, which took off from the Wenchang space launch center in southern China, landed as planned in the immense South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the largest craters in known impacts of the solar system, said the Xinhua news agency, citing the Chinese Space Administration.

This 53-day mission launched on May 3 should make it possible, according to the state agency, to take the first samples on the far side of the Moon, a rarely explored region of the Earth’s satellite. The probe descended from its orbit about 200 kilometers from the Moon to explore the surface for a landing site, said Huang Wu, an official with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). on public television channel CCTV.

The probe will attempt to collect lunar material and conduct other experiments in its landing zone. To do this, the device will be able to use its drill to recover samples from beneath the surface, as well as its robotic arm to grab material, directly on the surface in this case. The process should be completed in the next two days, according to the Xinhua news agency. Chang’e 6 will then attempt to leave from the far side of the Moon. In 2019, China had already placed a device on the far side of the Moon, but it had not brought back any samples.

Scientists believe that the dark side of the Moon – so called because it is invisible from Earth and not because it never captures the sun’s rays – is very promising for research, because its craters are less covered by old lava flows than those on the near and visible side. It could therefore be easier to collect samples there, in order to better understand how the Moon was formed.

China, which has already experienced several space successes, has considerably developed its space programs under the presidency of Xi Jinping, injecting billions of dollars into this sector in order to catch up with the American and Russian leaders. Beijing aims to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base there.