Chinese probe lands on ‘dark’ side of the moon to collect rare samples

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft touched down on the far side of the moon Sunday, China’s space agency said, marking its second mission to a lunar region that no other country has landed on amid a growing international rivalry over space exploration. If successful, it will be the first mission in history to retrieve samples from the far side of the moon.

The China National Space Administration sent the Chang’e 6 lunar probe to collect rock and other material near and around an impact crater called the Apollo basin, which is part of the larger South Pole-Aitken basin of the moon, according to the country’s official Xinhua News Agency.

The Chang’e 6 landed at 6:23 a.m. local time after it was launched into space May 3 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan. In Chinese mythology, Chang’e is the goddess of the moon.

China, the United States, Japan, India and Russia have invested heavily in space exploration in recent years — crowding a field that has throughout history been touted as a symbol of national power and progress.

For China and the United States, in particular, a rivalry is escalating over scientific frontiers in space. The United States plans to send humans to the moon again as soon as 2026, and China hopes to land its first crewed mission on the moon by 2030.

The far side of the moon — also known as the dark side of the moon — is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth. The word “dark” doesn’t refer to a lack of light but rather the fact that scientists know so little about this hemisphere.

Astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission were the first to see the dark side in 1968, and the Chang’e 4 made the first-ever landing there in January 2019. Communications are more difficult on the far side because radio waves are blocked by thick, solid rock, requiring scientists to use a relay satellite to send signals to the spacecraft and to work under a shorter window for sample collection. Rough terrain also makes for difficult landings.

The Chang’e 6 is expected to take about 15 hours to collect the samples. To adjust to that short time frame, CNSA scientists developed the spacecraft to make autonomous judgments while executing fewer commands than on previous missions, according to Xinhua.

The mission aims to develop key sampling technology, as well as takeoff and ascent capabilities from the far side of the moon, Xinhua added.

correction

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the United States and China are aiming to land humans on the moon for the second time. The United States landed several crewed missions on the moon in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and China has never landed an astronaut on the moon. The article has been corrected.