Chang'e 6

Description

Chang'e 6 is a lunar lander and sample return mission that landed on the far side of the Moon within the South Pole Aitken Basin. It launched on May 3, 2024 at 09:27 UT (5:27 p.m. Beijing Time), on a Long March 5 booster from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center and returned its samples on June 25.

Spacecraft and Subsystems

The mission has essentially the same architecture as Chang'e 5, with some changes in the payload. The spacecraft has a total mass of approximately 8200 kg. It comprises four modules: an orbiter, return vehicle, lander, and ascender. The four vehicle combination is designed to go into lunar orbit, where the lander-ascender combination separates and drops to land on the surface. Landed mass is approximately 3200 kg. Samples are collected and put in a container in the ascender, which lifts off to rendezvous with the orbiter-return vehicle combination. It then deposits the container in the orbiter-return vehicle, which brings the samples back to Earth, the return capsule separating and reentering the Earth's atmosphere and landing with the samples.

Propulsion for braking into lunar orbit is provided by a 3000 N rocket. Power is provided by solar panels. Chang'e 5 carries a robotic arm with a sampling scoop, a coring drill, and a sample chamber. The ascender vehicle uses a 3000 N thrust booster to lift off from the lunar surface. Chang'e 6 will have landing and survey cameras, and carries an instrument from France, Detection of Outgassing RadoN (DORN), as well as Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS), contributed by Sweden and ESA. A laser retroreflector (INRRI) from Italy and the ICUBE-Q cubesat from Pakistan will also be on the mission. A small rover was also included.

Mission Profile

Chang'e 6 reached the Moon and went into a 200 x 380,000 km altitude lunar orbit on May 8 at 02:21 UT. It slowly circularized the orbit over time. It also released the ICUBE-Q cubesat into lunar orbit on May 8. Chang'e 6 orbited for 20 days to find an appropriate landing site. The lander then separated from the orbiter. After a roughly 15 minute landing sequence, landing took place on June 1 at 22:23 UT (6:23 a.m. Beijing time, June 2) in the southern part of the Apollo crater, at coordinates 41.6385 S, 153.9852 W. The solar panels, antenna, and science experiments were deployed. Communications were established via the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, enabling communications from the lunar far side after landing.

The mission objective was to collect about 2 kg of material from the far side of the Moon and bring it back to Earth. A scoop and drill were used in order to obtain samples from the surface and from as deep as 2 meters below the surface. The samples were placed in the ascent vehicle, which was mounted on top of the lander. A small rover was also deployed, which drove a short distance on the lunar surface and took pictures of the Chang'e 6 lander. The ascent vehicle launched from the Moon on June 3 at 23:38 UT (7:38 a.m. Beijing time, June 4), bringing the samples to lunar orbit. There the ascender docked with the Chang'e 6 orbiter-return vehicle at 06:48 UT on June 6, and transferred the samples into the return vehicle by 07:24 UT. The ascender was released to impact the lunar surface, and the orbiter-return vehicle left orbit about June 21. The samples were brought back to Earth using an atmospheric skip reentry on June 25. The capsule landed in the Siziwang Banner province of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 06:07 UT (2:07 p.m. Beijing time). 1.9353 kg of material were returned.

Image credit: CNSA