Chang'e 5
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Chang'e 5 () was the fifth lunar exploration mission of the
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; ), also known as the Chang'e Project () after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program incorpor ...
, and China's first lunar
sample-return mission A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...
. 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 ...
. It launched at 20:30 UTC on 23 November 2020 from
Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site The Wenchang Space Launch Site ( zh, 文昌航天发射场, links=no), located in Wenchang, Hainan, China, is a rocket launch site — one of the two spacecraft launch sites of Xichang Satellite Launch Center (the other site is in Xichang, ...
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 ...
, landed on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
on 1 December 2020, collected ~ of
lunar sample Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as ...
s (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned to the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
at 17:59 UTC on 16 December 2020. Chang'e-5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's
Luna 24 ''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...
in 1976. The mission made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union.


Overview

The
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; ), also known as the Chang'e Project () after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program incorpor ...
has four phases, with incremental technological advancement: * Phase one:
orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
ing the Moon, completed by
Chang'e 1 Chang'e 1 (; ) was an unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft, part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. The spacecraft was named after the Chinese Moon goddess, Chang'e. Chang'e 1 was launched on 24 October 2007 at 1 ...
in 2007 and
Chang'e 2 Chang'e 2 (; ) is a Chinese unmanned lunar probe that was launched on 1 October 2010. It was a follow-up to the Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched in 2007. Chang'e 2 was part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and ...
in 2010. * Phase two:
soft landing Soft landing may refer to: *Soft landing (aeronautics) A soft landing is any type of aircraft, rocket or spacecraft landing that does not result in significant damage to or destruction of the vehicle or its payload, as opposed to a hard la ...
and deploying
rover Rover may refer to: People * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Places * Rover, Arkansas, US * Rover, Missouri, US * ...
on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, completed by
Chang'e 3 Chang'e 3 (; ) is a robotic lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), incorporating a robotic lander and China's first lunar rover. It was launched in December 2013 as part of the second phase of ...
(2013) and
Chang'e 4 Chang'e 4 (; ) is a robotic spacecraft mission, part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. China achieved humanity's first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019. A communication relay satellite, ...
(launched in December 2018, landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019). * Phase three: returning lunar samples, completed by Chang'e 5. The backup of Chang'e-5, the
Chang'e 6 Chang'e 6 () is a planned robotic Chinese lunar exploration 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. Ov ...
mission, is also a lunar sample-return mission. * Phase four:
in-situ resource utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials that ...
, and constructing an International Lunar Research Station near the
lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon, at 90°S. It is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region features craters that ar ...
. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program will finally lead to the crewed missions in the 2030s.


Equipment


Components

The Chang'e-5 mission consists of four modules or components: * Lander: landed on the
lunar surface The geology of the Moon (sometimes called selenology, although the latter term can refer more generally to " lunar science") is quite different from that of Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphere, which eliminates erosion due to weather. It does ...
after separating from the
Orbiter A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, pl ...
, installed with a drill and a scooping device. The Ascender is on the top of the Lander. * Ascender: after sampling, the lunar samples have been transported to a container within the Ascender. The Ascender launched from the lunar surface at 15:11 UTC, on 3 December 2020, followed by automatic
lunar orbit rendezvous Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar lander travel to ...
and docking with the Orbiter. After transferring the sample, the Ascender separated from the Orbiter, deorbited and fell back down on the Moon at 22:49 UTC, on 6 December 2020, to avoid becoming
space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...
. * Orbiter: after the samples transported from the Ascender to the Orbiter, the Orbiter left the lunar orbit and spent ~4.5 days flying back to the
Earth orbit Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi) in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes  days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth ...
and released the Returner (
reentry capsule A reentry capsule is the portion of a space capsule which returns to Earth following a spaceflight. The shape is determined partly by aerodynamics; a capsule is aerodynamically stable falling blunt end first, which allows only the blunt end to re ...
) just before arrival. * Returner: The Returner performed a
skip reentry Non-ballistic atmospheric entry is a class of atmospheric entry trajectories that follow a non-ballistic trajectory by employing aerodynamic lift in the high upper atmosphere. It includes trajectories such as skip and glide. Skip is a flight tr ...
to bounce off the atmosphere once before formal reentering. The four components were launched together and flew to the Moon as a combined unit. After reaching the lunar orbit (14:58 UTC, on 28 November 2020), the Lander/Ascender separated from the Orbiter/Returner modules (20:40 UTC, on 29 November 2020), and descended to the surface of the Moon (15:13 UTC, on 1 December 2020). After samples have been collected, the Ascender separated from the Lander (15:11 UTC, on 3 December 2020), lifted off to the Orbiter/Returner, docked with them, and transferred the samples to the Returner. The Ascender then separated from the Orbiter/Returner and crashed on the Moon (~30°S in latitude and 0° in longitude) at 22:49 UTC, on 8 December 2020. The Orbiter/Returner then returned to the
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
, where the Returner separated and descended to the surface of the Earth at 17:59 UTC, on 16 December 2020. The estimated launch mass of Chang'e-5 is , the Lander is projected to be and Ascender is about . Unlike Chang'e 4, which was equipped with a
radioisotope heater unit Radioisotope heater units (RHU) are small devices that provide heat through radioactive decay. They are similar to tiny radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) and normally provide about one watt of heat each, derived from the decay of a fe ...
to survive the extreme cold of lunar night, the Lander of Chang'e-5 stopped functioning in the following lunar night.


Scientific payloads

Chang'e-5 includes four scientific payloads, including a Landing Camera, a Panoramic Camera, a Lunar Mineralogical Spectrometer, and a Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar. Chang'e-5 collected samples using two methods, i.e., drilling for subsurface samples and scooping for surface samples. The scooping device was developed by
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is a public research university located in Hung Hom, Hong Kong near Hung Hom station. The University is one of the eight government-funded degree-granting tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. Founded ...
, consisting of Sampler A, Sampler B, Near-field Cameras, and Sealing and Packaging System.


Mission profile

File:“长五”送“嫦五” 开启中国首次地外天体采样返回之旅.webm, Sample-return mission File:长征五号遥五运载火箭将嫦娥五号探测器发射升空.webm, Chang'e 5 launch File:2020年12月17日 嫦娥五号“太空打水漂”返回地球 五星红旗永久留在月面.webm, Chang'e 5 returning File:2020年12月18日 研制团队成员讲述嫦娥五号23天旅程.webm, Chang'e 5 23 days mission


Launch

Chang'e 5 was planned to be launched in November 2017 by the
Long March 5 Long March 5 (LM-5; zh, s=长征五号 , p=Chángzhēng wǔ hào), or Changzheng 5 (CZ-5), and also by its nickname "''Pang-Wu''" (胖五, "''Fat-Five''"), is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle ...
rocket; however, a July 2017 failure of the referenced carrier rocket forced a delay to the original schedule two times until the end of 2020. On 27 December 2019, the Long March 5 successfully returned to services, thereby allowing the current mission to proceed after
Tianwen-1 -1 (TW-1; zh, t=, s=, l='Heavenly Questions') is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, rem ...
mission. The Chang'e 5 probe was launched at 20:30 UTC, on 23 November 2020, by
Long March 5 Long March 5 (LM-5; zh, s=长征五号 , p=Chángzhēng wǔ hào), or Changzheng 5 (CZ-5), and also by its nickname "''Pang-Wu''" (胖五, "''Fat-Five''"), is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle ...
Y-5 launch vehicle from the
Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site The Wenchang Space Launch Site ( zh, 文昌航天发射场, links=no), located in Wenchang, Hainan, China, is a rocket launch site — one of the two spacecraft launch sites of Xichang Satellite Launch Center (the other site is in Xichang, ...
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 ...
.


Earth-Moon Transfer

After launch, Chang'e-5 applied its first orbital correction at 14:06 UTC, on 24 November 2020, second orbital correction at 14:06 UTC, on 25 November 2020, entered the lunar orbital at 14:58 UTC, on 28 November 2020 (elliptical orbital), adjusted its orbit to a circular orbit at 12:23 UTC, on 29 November 2020, and the Lander/Ascender separated from the Orbiter/Returner at 20:10 UTC, on 29 November 2020, in preparing for landing.


Landing site

The Lander/Ascender landed on the Moon on 1 December 2020 at 15:11 UTC. The Chang'e 5 landing site is at 43.1°N (in latitude), 51.8°W (in longitude) in the Northern
Oceanus Procellarum Oceanus Procellarum ( la, Ōceanus procellārum, lit=Ocean of Storms) is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Proc ...
near a huge volcanic complex,
Mons Rümker Mons Rümker is an isolated volcanic formation that is located in the northwest part of the Moon's near side, at selenographic coordinates 40.8° N, 58.1° W. The feature forms a large, elevated mound in the northern part of the Oceanus Procellaru ...
, located in the northwest lunar near side. The area is mapped as '
Eratosthenian The Eratosthenian period in the lunar geologic timescale runs from 3,200 million years ago to 1,100 million years ago. It is named after the crater Eratosthenes, which displays characteristics typical of craters of this age, including a surface ...
Mare' by the
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
. The Chang'e 5 landing site, named Statio Tianchuan, is within the Procellarum KREEP Terrain, with elevated heat-producing elements, thin crust, and prolonged volcanism. This area is characterized by some of the youngest mare basalts on the Moon (~1.21 billion years old), with elevated
titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
,
thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...
, and
olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...
abundances, which have never been sampled by
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
or Luna mission.


Back to the Earth

The Chang'e 5 Ascender lifted off from
Oceanus Procellarum Oceanus Procellarum ( la, Ōceanus procellārum, lit=Ocean of Storms) is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Proc ...
at 15:10 UTC, on 3 December 2020, and six minutes later, arrived in lunar orbit. The Ascender docked with the Orbiter/Returner combination in the lunar orbit on 5 December 2020 at 21:42 UTC, and the samples were transferred to the return capsule at 22:12 UTC. The Ascender separated from the Orbiter/Returner combination on 6 December 2020 at 04:35 UTC. After completing its role of the mission, the Ascender was commanded to deorbit on 7 December 2020, at 22:59 UTC, and crashed into the Moon's surface at 23:30 UTC, in the area of (~30°S, 0°E). On 13 December 2020 at 01:51 UTC, from a distance of 230 kilometers from the lunar surface, the Orbiter and Returner successfully fired four engines to enter the Moon-Earth
Hohmann transfer orbit In astronautics, the Hohmann transfer orbit () is an orbital maneuver used to transfer a spacecraft between two orbits of different altitudes around a central body. Examples would be used for travel between low Earth orbit and the Moon, or ano ...
. The electronics and systems on the Chang'e 5 lunar lander were expected to cease working on 11 December 2020, due to the Moon's extreme cold and lack of a
radioisotope heater unit Radioisotope heater units (RHU) are small devices that provide heat through radioactive decay. They are similar to tiny radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) and normally provide about one watt of heat each, derived from the decay of a fe ...
. However, engineers were also prepared for the possibility that the Chang'e 5 lander could be damaged and stop working after acting as the
launchpad A launch pad is an above-ground platform from which rocket- missiles or space launch vehicles take off vertically. Launch pad may also refer to: Computing * Launchpad (macOS), an application launcher introduced in Mac OS X Lion * Launch Pad (s ...
for the ascender module on 3 December 2020, as turned out to be the case. On 16 December 2020 at around 18:00 UTC, the roughly return capsule performed a ballistic
skip reentry Non-ballistic atmospheric entry is a class of atmospheric entry trajectories that follow a non-ballistic trajectory by employing aerodynamic lift in the high upper atmosphere. It includes trajectories such as skip and glide. Skip is a flight tr ...
, in effect bouncing off the atmosphere over the
Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
before re-entry. The capsule, containing around of drilled and scooped lunar material, landed in the grasslands of
Siziwang Banner Dorbod (Siziwang) Banner ( mn, , , ; ) is a banner (county equivalent) in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, China, bordering Mongolia's Dornogovi Province to the northwest. It is located about north of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. The banner ...
in the
Ulanqab Ulanqab or Ulan Chab (; mn, ''Ulaɣančab qota''; Mongolian cyrillic.Улаанцав хот) is a region administered as a prefecture-level city in south-central Inner Mongolia, China. Its administrative centre is in Jining District, which w ...
region of south central
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
. Surveillance
drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
s spotted the Returner capsule prior to its touchdown, and recovery vehicles located the capsule shortly afterwards. The next day, it was reported that Chang'e 5's service module had performed an atmospheric re-entry avoidance burn and has been on-course to an Earth-Sun L1
Lagrange point In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (; also Lagrangian points or libration points) are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of th ...
orbit as a part of its extended mission.


Extended mission

After dropping off return samples for Earth, the Chang'e 5 (CE-5) orbiter was successfully captured by Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point at 5:39 UTC, on 15 March 2021, and became the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point. The distance at the time of capture was about 936,700 kilometers from Earth and the orbiter entered an orbit with a period of about 6 months. On its 88 days journey to L1, mission control conducted 2 orbital maneuvers and 2 trajectory correction maneuvers. It made a lunar flyby in an extended mission on 9 September 2021. In January 2022, CE-5 left the L1 point for the lunar distant retrograde orbit (DRO) to conduct
very-long-baseline interferometry Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometer, astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telesco ...
tests in preparation for the next stage of China's Lunar Exploration Program. According to
The Space Review ''The Space Review'' is a free online publication, published weekly with in-depth articles, essays, commentary and reviews on space exploration and development. It was founded in February 2003 by Jeff Foust, the current editor, publisher and regu ...
(TSR), this maneuver was depicted in Chinese government and academics documents. In February 2022, Multiple amateur satellite trackers observed CE-5 had entered DRO, which was the first spacecraft in history to utilize the orbit.


Lunar sample research

The ~ of lunar samples collected by Chang'e-5 have enormous scientific meanings in terms of their abnormally young ages (<2.0 billion years old). At least 27 fundamental questions can be answered by those samples on lunar chronology, petrogenesis, regional setting, geodynamic and thermal evolution, and regolith formation, especially, calibrating the lunar chronology function, constraining the lunar dynamo status, unraveling the deep mantle properties, and assessing the Procellarum KREEP Terrain structures. Dating this relatively young part of the Moon's surface would provide an additional calibration point for estimating the surface ages of other
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
bodies. Wu Yanhua (), deputy director of the
China National Space Administration China National Space Administration (CNSA; ) is the government agency of the People's Republic of China that is responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation, including organizing or leading foreign exchanges ...
(CNSA) announced that the new samples will be shared with the UN and international partners for space research purposes. Preliminary analysis of the basalt lava samples taken from Oceanus Procellarum led by the
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences The Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS; ) is an institution that engages in geoscience research in the People's Republic of China. The academy was established in 1956 and reorganized in 1999. Administratively it is under the PRC Ministry ...
determined the age of these rocks to be close to 1.96 billion years old, filling a critical age-gap of available lunar rock samples, which, among other applications, can assist in further calibrating planetary crater chronological tools. The team discovered evidence of
hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydroxy ...
molecules in the samples through reflectance spectra, indicating the likely presence of water molecules up to 120 ppm. The researchers postulated the water and hydroxyl molecules had been embedded in the lunar soil through
solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
.


First Chinese flag on the Moon

Chang'e 5's lunar lander deployed the first Chinese flag on the moon. The flag was made from a composite material to withstand the moon's harsh environment without fading or deforming. Chinese scientists spent over a year testing dozens of possible materials for the flag. Weighing only 12 grams, it can maintain its true colors under a temperature difference of plus or minus 150 degrees Celsius.


Related missions


Chang'e 5-T1

Chang'e 5-T1 Chang'e 5-T1 () was an experimental robotic spacecraft that was launched to the Moon on 23 October 2014 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the Cha ...
is an experimental robotic lunar mission that was launched on 23 October 2014 to conduct
atmospheric re-entry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...
tests on the capsule design that was planned to be used in the Chang'e 5 mission. Its service module, called DFH-3A, remained in orbit around the Earth before being relocated via Earth–Moon L2 to lunar orbit by 13 January 2015, where it is using its remaining 800 kg of fuel to test maneuvers critical to future lunar missions.


International collaboration

The
European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
(ESA) has supported the Chang'e 5 mission by providing tracking via ESA's Kourou station located in
French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
. ESA has tracked the spacecraft during the launch and landing phases while providing on-call backup for China's ground stations throughout the mission. Data from the Kourou station has helped the mission control team at the
Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center (), formerly known as Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center (; BACCC or BACC), is a command center for the Chinese space program which includes the Shenzhou program, Shenzhou missions, and is locate ...
to determine the spacecraft's health and orbit status. Chang'e 5 was returned to Earth on 16 December 2020. During the landing phase, ESA used its
Maspalomas Station Maspalomas Station is an INTA-operated, ESTRACK radio antenna ground station for communication with spacecraft located at the southern area of Gran Canaria island, on the INTA campus. It is situated on the Montaña Blanca hill and is visible from ...
located in the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
and operated by the
Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial The Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial «Esteban Terradas» (INTA, ) is an autonomous agency of the Spanish public administration dependent on the Secretariat of State for Defence (SEDEF). It is responsible for the aerospace, aerona ...
(INTA) in Spain, to support the tracking efforts.


International reactions

Science journalist Bob McDonald discussed Chang'e 5 in comparison to the Soviet
Luna programme The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, ...
, which involved
Luna 15 Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that crashed into the Moon on 21 July 1969. On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at th ...
,
Luna 16 ''Luna 16'' was an uncrewed space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program. It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. The 101 grams (3.56 ounces) sample was returned from Mare Fecunditatis. ...
and
Luna 24 ''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...
being sent to the Moon. Luna 15 attempted to grab a sample of lunar soil and return it to Earth before the American
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
astronauts
Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
,
Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...
, and
Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...
got back in July 1969. It crashed during its landing attempt, hence losing the opportunity for a "propaganda coup". The Luna 16 mission successfully returned about 100 grams of lunar soil a year later and two other sample return missions succeeded in subsequent years, the most recent being Luna 24 in 1976. McDonald considers China just entered another Moon race, except this time the robots might be in the lead. Bradley Perrett, Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief of Aviation Week Network, opined that the
Moon race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
between the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and the United States in the 1960s was driven by propaganda: a message to the world about their strength. Perrett noted that the Chang'e project was also driven by propaganda utility, but primarily for the internal audience; the reason that the Chinese government funded this mission was to show the Chinese people that "China can do it".


See also

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Chinese space program The space program of the People's Republic of China is directed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China's space program has overseen the development and launch of ballistic missiles, thousands of artificial satellites, mann ...
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Chinese Lunar Exploration Program The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; ), also known as the Chang'e Project () after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program incorpor ...
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Exploration of the Moon 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 observatio ...
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List of missions to the Moon As part of human exploration of the Moon, numerous space missions have been undertaken to study Earth's natural satellite. Of the Moon landings, Luna 2 of the Soviet Union was the first spacecraft to reach its surface successfully, intentional ...
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List of artificial objects on the Moon This is a partial list of artificial materials left on the Moon, many during the missions of the Apollo program. The table below does not include lesser Apollo mission artificial objects, such as a hammer and other tools, retroreflectors, Apollo ...
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Lunar resources The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that together, m ...
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Moon landing A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United St ...


Notes


References


External links

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China’s first Moon rocks ignite research bonanza
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Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
{{Portal bar, China, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Solar System, Science Chinese Lunar Exploration Program Missions to the Moon Sample return missions Chinese space probes Space probes launched in 2020 2020 in China 2020 on the Moon Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets Spacecraft which reentered in 2020