By 
November 24th, 2020
Credit: CAST
China’s Chang’e-5 Moon mission faces a complex set of step-by-step stages to collect and return lunar samples back to Earth.
The craft’s departure atop a Long March-5 Y5 booster from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site occurred at 4:30 a.m. Beijing time.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
Weighing 8.2 tons, Chang’e-5 consists of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.
On track
“According to the report of the aerospace control center, the Long March-5 rocket was in normal flight and the Chang’e-5 spacecraft has accurately entered the preset orbit,” said Zhang Xueyu, director of southwest China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center and chief director of the Chang’e-5 mission.
Credit: ESA
Chinese Tianlian relay satellites were utilized in the launch of Chang’e-5.
Meanwhile, two space tracking ships from China’s Yuanwang fleet — Yuanwang-5 and Yuanwang-6 — completed their maritime monitoring of the Chang’e-5 probe launch in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday morning. The maritime monitoring process lasted a total of 1,100 seconds. The two ships sent accurate real-time data to spacecraft control centers in Beijing and Wenchang, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The European Space Agency (ESA) is supporting the mission by tracking the spacecraft during two of the mission’s most critical phases and is providing on-call back-up for China’s own ground stations.
Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Next stages
“The next ten stages of Chang’e-5 mission include key orbital corrections, capture of the spacecraft when it reaches the Moon’s orbit, the separation of the orbiter, lander, ascender and returner of Chang’e-5, touching down the Moon’s surface, lunar sampling, lunar surface takeoff, lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, transfer of samples, departing from the Moon’s orbit, returning to Earth and reentering the Earth’s atmosphere,” Xie Jianfeng, chief engineer of the Chang’e-5 mission, told China Central Television (CCTV).
Ascender departs Moon with samples. Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Docking of ascender with orbiter-returner. Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The lander-ascender is targeted to touch down on the northwest region of Oceanus Procellarum — also known as the Ocean of Storms — on the near side of the Moon in early December.
Rocks and regolith
Following touchdown, within 48 hours, a robotic arm is to scoop up rocks and regolith on the lunar surface. Also a drill will bore into the ground. About 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of samples are expected to be collected and sealed in a container in the spacecraft.
Lunar samples head for Earth landing. Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
With its lunar collectibles onboard, the ascender will take off, and dock with the orbiter-returner in orbit. Following transfer of the samples to the returner, the ascender will separate from the orbiter-returner.
Around December 15 the returner will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere using a skip maneuver, then land under parachute at the Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Skip reentry. Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The entire flight will last more than 20 days.
Only two other countries, the United States via the Apollo program, and the former Soviet Union’s robotic Luna program, have brought samples back from the Moon. If everything goes well, Chang’e-5 would be the first robotic lunar sample return mission since Luna 24 in 1976.
Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Milestone mission
“The Chang’e-5 lunar mission is China’s first attempt to retrieve planetary soil sample from an extraterrestrial body and return to Earth. There are many firsts,” said Zhao Huanzhou, deputy chief engineer of Chang’e-5 lunar mission at Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center in an interview with CCTV. “This mission features the most intensive and demanding control tasks, the most emergency branches and the most fault modes in China’s aerospace history,” Zhao said.
Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“We could call it a milestone mission,” said Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-5 probe from the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. “Its success will help us acquire the basic capabilities for future deep space exploration such as sampling and takeoff from Mars, asteroids and other celestial bodies,” Peng said.
New China TV has released a video detailing the various aspects of the Chang’e-5 lunar sample mission.
Go to:
CCTV Video News Agency has issued this video regarding the Chang’e-5 mission. Go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9J64y3j54o
Posted in Space News
