Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission elements.
Credit: CNSA

China’s next outbound Moon explorer is the Chang’e-6 spacecraft.

Components for that mission have arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Site launch site, according to a statement today from the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Scheduled for launch in the first half of this year, the Chang’e-6 mission is to showcase technologies in lunar retrograde orbit design and control, intelligent sampling on the Moon’s farside, and ascent from the lunar surface.

Far side science

Chang’e-6 is set to land in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon’s farside to explore and collect lunar samples for rocketing back to Earth.

Credit: CNSA

The probe will also carry payloads from France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Space Agency, which include a negative ion detector and a radon gas detector, according to the CNSA.

Those components of the Chang’e-6 probe were transported by the An-124 and Y-20 transport aircraft, arriving at the Meilan International Airport in Haikou City on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, before they were transported by road to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site some 80 kilometers away, as noted by China Central Television (CCTV).

Artist’s view of International Lunar Research Station to be completed by 2035. Credit: CNSA

As reported by China Global Television Network (CGTN), China will send the Chang’e-7 probe around 2026 to implement resource exploration of the lunar south pole and the Chang’e-8 around 2028 to conduct experiments on lunar resource utilization and to build the basic model of the International Lunar Research Station, citing China’s lunar exploration blueprint.

China has finished its three-step lunar exploration program of orbiting, landing and returning, with the Chang’e-5 lunar probe bringing back 1,731 grams of samples from the moon on December 17, 2020, adds CGTN.