Chang'e 6 () is a planned robotic

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

lunar exploration The physical exploration of the Moon began when ''Luna 2'', a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation ...

mission that is expected to launch in 2025 and perform China's second sample return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess

Chang'e Chang'e ( ; , alternatively rendered as Chang-Er or Ch‘ang-o), originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddess of the Moon. She is the subject of several legends in Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elem ...

Overview

The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is designed to be conducted in fourChang'e 4 press conference
CNSA, broadcast on 14 January 2019. phases of incremental technological advancement: The first is reaching lunar orbit, completed by Chang'e 1 in 2007 and Chang'e 2 in 2010. The second is landing and roving on the Moon, as Chang'e 3 did in 2013 and Chang'e 4 did in 2019. The third is collecting lunar samples from the near-side and sending them to Earth, completed by Chang'e 5 in 2020 and planned for the Chang'e 6 mission. The fourth phase consists of development of a robotic research station near the Moon's south pole.China's Planning for Deep Space Exploration and Lunar Exploration before 2030
(PDF) XU Lin, ZOU Yongliao, JIA Yingzhuo. ''Space Sci''., 2018, 38(5): 591–592. The program aims to facilitate a crewed lunar landing in the 2030s and possibly build an outpost near the lunar south pole.

Mission architecture

Chang'e 6 was built as a copy and backup of Chang'e 5. The mission is reported to consist of four modules: the lander will collect about of samples from below the surface and place them in an attached ascent vehicle to be launched into lunar orbit. The ascent vehicle will then make a fully autonomous and robotic rendezvous and dock with an orbiter where the samples will be robotically transferred into a sample-return capsule for their delivery to Earth.

Science payloads

In October 2018, Chinese officials announced that they will call for international partners to propose an additional payload up to to be included in this mission. In November 2022 it was announced that the mission would carry payloads from four international partners: * a French instrument called DORN (Detection of Outgassing Radon) to study the transport of lunar dust and other volatiles between the

lunar regolith Lunar soil is the fine fraction of the regolith found on the surface of the Moon. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial soil. The physical properties of lunar soil are primarily the result of mechanical disintegra ...

and the

lunar exosphere The atmosphere of the Moon is a very scant presence of gases surrounding the Moon. For most practical purposes, the Moon is considered to be surrounded by vacuum. The elevated presence of atomic and molecular particles in its vicinity compared to ...

, including the

water cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly cons ...

; * an Italian instrument called INRRI (INstrument for landing-Roving laser Retroreflector Investigations) consisting in a passive laser retro-reflector to be used for laser range-finding of the lander, similar to those used on the Schiaparelli and InSight missions; * thr Swedish NILS (Negative Ions on Lunar Surface), an instrument to detect and measure negative ions reflected by the lunar surface; * the Pakistani ICECUBE-Q cubesat, to detect ice traces on the lunar surface.

Launch

The probe will be launched by a Long March 5 rocket in 2025, from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

References

External links

China's Deep Space Exploration Roadmap
(2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang'e 6 Chinese Lunar Exploration Program Missions to the Moon Sample return missions Chinese space probes 2024 in China 2024 in spaceflight