China Sent A Mission To Bring Moon Rocks Back To Earth, And Unravel Moon¡¯s Origin
This is the sixth mission by China to the Moon as it plans to set up building a human settlement there.
Ever since humans first stepped on the Moon, it has helped humanity learn so much about the vast nothingness of space, while igniting the spark to explore other planets in our solar system and galaxy, while also hoping to find new life forms in the universe.
NASA
The rocks collected from the moon have deciphered mysteries surrounding Earth and Moon¡¯s existence in this galaxy and also help us understand how this universe came into existence. The last time samples from the Moon were collected were nearly 40 years ago.
However, today, China¡¯s National Space Administration has launched a rocket to the Moon that¡¯ll collect Moon samples to learn more about our neighbouring satellite. The mission is dubbed Chang¡¯e-5 and it plans on collecting the samples from the lunar surface with the help of a robot.
Visiting the volcanic plain of MonsR¨¹mker
This is the sixth mission by China to the Moon as it plans to set up building a human settlement there. Chang¡¯e-5aims to collect 4 pounds of moon rock and dust from the volcanic plain of Mons R¨¹mker -- a region that hasn¡¯t been explored before, to help us learn about the volcanic activity that occurred on the celestial object in the past.
NASA
Previous samples have indicated that active volcanoes existed on the Lunar surface, and Mons R¨¹mker, according to researchers was the most recent one at around 1.2 billion years ago.
A crazy cool mission
This is going to be a really nerve-wracking mission -- the rocket comprises of an orbiter and a descender-ascender. The latter will drop on the Moon surface, where a robot will drill and collect the necessary samples and then transfer it to the ascender which will blast it off to the orbiter.
NASA
The orbiter will then align and send it back to Earth. The robot will only have a day to collect the samples. The samples are expected to return to the planet in a capsule that¡¯ll drop somewhere in Inner Mongolia around mid-December.
If successful, this will make China the third nation after the US and the Soviet Union to bring moon-rock samples to Earth.
