China becomes the first country to retrieve lunar samples from the far side of the moon!
Chang’e-6 landed safely on earth earlier today.
Quite a breathtaking tech achievement! 👍👍
— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) June 25, 2024
Successfully landed! 🌏🌏 China’s Chang’e-6 brought back the world’s 1st samples collected from the moon’s far side.🌒🌒 Congratulations!!! https://t.co/SCw7eFVelv pic.twitter.com/I2yCEnXIiw
— Li Zexin (@XH_Lee23) June 25, 2024
If the Chinese say the Moon is real, I’m inclined to believe them.
China has become the first country to gather samples from the far side of the moon and bring them back to Earth in a landmark achievement for the Beijing space programme.
A re-entry capsule containing the precious cargo parachuted into a landing zone in the rural Siziwang Banner region of Inner Mongolia on Tuesday after being released into Earth’s orbit by the uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe.
The return of the lunar material wraps up a highly successful mission for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) amid a wave of interest in which space agencies and private companies will build instruments and bases on the moon and exploit its resources.
The Chang’e-6 mission, named after the Chinese moon goddess, blasted off from Hainan province in south China on 3 May and touched down on 2 June on the side of the moon that is never seen from Earth. The moon shows only one face to the Earth because it is tidally locked and completes one full rotation in the time it takes to circle the planet.
The mission’s lander spent two days collecting rock and soil from one of the oldest and largest craters on the moon, the 1,600-mile-wide South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, using a robotic arm and drill. Its ascent module then lifted off from the moon’s surface and rendezvoused with the orbiter before embarking on its journey home.
“This is a great achievement by China,” said Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester. “Recovering any samples from the moon is difficult, but doing so from the far side, where communications are particularly difficult is a step taken by no other agency. A real technological feat.”
The US, China and the former Soviet Union have gathered samples from the near side of the moon but China is the first to bring material home from the far side. The intention was to collect up to 2kg of moon rock and soil.
China previously collaborated with international scientists to study samples it brought back from the near side of the moon but it is unclear whether similar access will be granted to the new material from the far side.
At what point do Americans say “it looks like China is a more powerful country and they are humiliating us on every level”?
It seems like we’re past the point where they should have started questioning this entire narrative about China and the basic nature of what is happening here on the planet earth.
Or, I should say, “the nature of what is happening in the realm.”