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Missile launch in Wenchang: Historic mission
Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP
China has sent an unmanned spaceship on its way to the moon.
The spaceship is supposed to land there and bring rock samples back to Earth for the first time in over 40 years.
The "Long March 5" rocket lifted off early Tuesday morning local time (Monday evening CET) from the space station in Wenchang on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
The spaceship named after the Chinese moon goddess "Chang'e 5" is expected to bring a so-called lander to the moon on Sunday, which will collect rocks and drill samples.
With a successful return, China would be only the third space nation to succeed in such a project after the USA and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
The spaceship is supposed to land in the volcanic area named after the German astronomer Karl Rümker (1788-1862).
It is located in the "ocean of storms" in the upper left part of the earth-facing side of the moon.
The mission is considered to be one of the most complicated that China's space travel has ever undertaken: For the first time, a Chinese ascent would start again from the moon, take rock samples and perform a docking maneuver in the orbit of the earth's satellite before the return capsule flies back to earth.
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"Long March 5" before the start
Photo:
TINGSHU WANG / REUTERS
The 8,200 kilogram spaceship consists of four modules: the orbiter with the return capsule and the lander with the ascent stage.
After touching down on the lunar surface, the lander will use a long arm to collect around two kilograms of lunar rock and samples from boreholes up to two meters deep and stow them in a chamber.
Return in mid-December
The spaceship is scheduled to land in Inner Mongolia on December 16 or 17.
Scientists are eagerly awaiting the samples, as no rock from recent lunar history has yet been brought to earth for studies.
The "ocean of storms" is only 1.2 million years old.
Moon rocks collected by the USA and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are significantly older, at 3.1 and 4.4 million years.
Researchers hope that the samples will provide important new insights into volcanic activity and the history of the moon.
"Chang'e 5" is said to land on the moon at sunrise and stay on earth for one lunar day - two weeks.
The spaceship does not have to be equipped with special heating devices to withstand the extremely cold temperatures of the moonlit night.
The complexity of the three-week flight is also considered preparation for possible manned moon landings in the future.
China is pursuing a space program with missions to the moon and Mars and the construction of its own space station.
In January 2019, China was the first space nation to land with "Chang'e 4" on the relatively unexplored far side of the moon.
A rover has been abandoned to continue exploring the surface.
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ptz / dpa
