BEIJING: China’s third robotic mission, the Cheng 5, has successfully landed on the moon and will return to Earth in the next two weeks with rock samples from there.
According to the International News Agency, the Chinese space mission has landed on the surface of China with the aim of bringing samples from the moon to the earth and if this mission is successful, the samples from the moon will be brought to the earth after 50 years.
Earlier, US and Soviet space missions also managed to bring samples from the moon to Earth, with American astronauts from 1969 to 1972 returning 382 kilograms of rocks and other artifacts from the moon.
China’s space mission consists of two spacecraft landers and a lunar vehicle placed on top of each other. The lander will use a robotic hand to dig the surface of the moon and collect the rock samples in a box, after which the box will be transferred to the moon vehicle.
After collecting samples from the moon, the space mission Cheng 5 will begin its journey to Earth and reach Earth on December 16 or 17. This is China’s third robotic mission to the moon, but the first mission is being used to bring samples from the moon.
Although samples from the moon have been brought to Russia and US missions before, the Chinese spacecraft brought many times better samples than them, which is likely to provide important information about the formation of the moon and the volcanic activity that takes place there.