Ten, nine, eight, seven … The fifth Long March 5 carrier rocket with the Chang'e 5 lunar probe (月球探测器) launched (发射) at 4:30 am on Nov. 24th, 2020.
The Chang'e 5 lunar probe plans to return with samples (样品) of the moon. The whole mission (任务) will last about 23 days, according to the China National Space Administration. If this mission is successful, Chang'e 5 will be the first lunar sample-return spacecraft since 1976, when the former Soviet Union's unmanned Luna 24 brought 170.1 grams of lunar samples back.
As one of the most difficult missions, the Chang'e 5 mission aims to bring back a larger sample and explore a new area of the moon.
"The three unmanned lunar probes of the former Soviet Union—Lunar 16, Lunar 20 and Lunar 24—carried out three lunar samplings and return missions, and the lunar soil samples brought back were only about 330 grams, while Chang'e 5 plans to bring back 2 kilograms of lunar samples," Pang Zhihao, a space activity researcher and author in Beijing, told Science and Technology Daily. The great increase in sample weight can play a key role in Chang'e 5's lunar orbit unmanned docking program (月球轨道无人对接计划). With the program, the ascender (上升器) only requires a small amount of fuel (燃料), so even a heavier sampling will not influence the normal return of the spacecraft.
The best part of the journey is Chang'e 5's lunar landing site—the northwest part of Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms—on the near side of the moon, where no probes have visited before.
