Фото китайського посадкового модуля «Чаньє 6» на зворотному боці Місяця після посадки 2 червня 2024 року. Джерело: CCTV
China is currently the only country to land its spacecraft on the back of the Moon (the previous one «Chang’e-4» back in 2019).
According to China’s National Space Administration, the «Chang’e-6» probe has successfully landed at a designated location on the lunar backside. Its mission is to collect and deliver to Earth samples of material from the Aitken impact crater region, where researchers believe there is water ice that will be needed to produce oxygen and fuel during a potentially stable human stay on the Moon.
According to the plan, «Chang’e-6» should start drilling and collecting material with a robotic arm within 48 hours after «lunar landing. The mission itself will last about 53 days.
«First-hand samples from the Moon’s backside are important for a deeper understanding of the characteristics and differences between the two sides of the satellite, as well as for unlocking its secrets,» Zeng Xingguo, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state media.
«Chanye-6» launched to the Moon on May 6 and reached the lunar orbit in four days. Over the next few weeks, the spacecraft carefully examined the landing site and eventually made the landing as planned on June 2.
«Chang’e-6» — is just one of a series of Chinese missions that are expected to ensure the presence of Chinese astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. A few days earlier, Russia ratified an agreement with Beijing to jointly establish an International Lunar Research Station near the Moon’s south pole.
The United States also plans to return to the Moon by that time (for the first time since the end of the «Apollo» program in 1972) thanks to a series of Artemis missions.