Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: CCTV

Today’s liftoff of China’s Chang’e-6 mission to the Moon is a signature statement for a much larger undertaking.

If successful, China’s Change’-6 robotic exploration of the Moon serves as a direct link to the country’s intent to bring back to Earth samples from Mars.

Liftoff of China’s Chang’e-6 lunar lander.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Moon unknowns

According to James Head, noted Moon expert at Brown University that served in shaping the Apollo program’s return of lunar science data, China’s outgoing robotic craft can help unravel a number of Moon unknowns.

“We see many fundamental differences between the lunar nearside and far side, but don’t really understand how they came about, or their ages. Chang’e-6 will return the first samples from the lunar far side, the ‘Luna Incognita’ of our nearest planetary neighbor, and the samples are sure to be a ‘gold-mine’ for bringing us to a new understanding of the global Moon,” Head told Inside Outer Space.

Image credit: CNSA/China ‘N Asia Spaceflight

According to China space watchers, the Chang’e-6 lunar lander appears to be outfitted with a mini-rover. While not officially confirmed as yet by the China National Space Agency (CNSA), one X posting from China ‘N Asia Spaceflight notes: “There’s surprisingly a rover carried on Chang’e-6. The only clue I found is that the Italian instrument is called “INstrument for landing-Roving laser Retroreflector Investigations.”

Image credit: CCTV Inside Outer Space screengrab

Image credit: Xingguo Zeng, et al.

Obvious implications

But while China’s Chang’e-6 is designed to unravel mysteries at the Moon, a bigger agenda is being blueprinted.

“One of the obvious implications of the Chang’e-6 mission scenario — as with China’s Chang’-5 lunar sample return mission — is that every step of the mission, the launch, lunar orbit, detaching and landing, sampling, ascent and rendezvous, transfer of sample, leaving lunar orbit, reentry to Earth atmosphere, and parachute landing, are the same critical operational steps that Chinese Taikonauts will make in the human exploration of the Moon,” Head said. “And you can be sure that Chinese engineers and mission planners are studying these steps carefully.”

Head also noted that, in addition, “these steps duplicate a large number of key operational steps in China’s Mars Sample Return Mission, Tianwen-3, scheduled to launch around 2030.”

Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Fellow lunatics

Following the liftoff, Head remarked: “Congratulations to CNSA and our Chinese colleagues on the successful launch this morning of the Chang’e-6 lunar far side sample return mission to the Apollo basin in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The Chang’e-6 spacecraft is on its way to the Moon with solar panels fully deployed.”

Joining Head in spotlighting the just-underway mission is Clive Neal, a lunar expert at the University of Notre Dame. “Congratulations our fellow lunatics in China for a successful launch of Chang’e 6 and all the best for a nominal sample return mission,” he said. “To the Moon!”

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