On Tuesday, a capsule carrying soil from the far side of the moon will land by parachute over the desert in China’s Inner Mongolia region.
The sample, recovered by the Chinese National Space Agency’s Chang’e-6 lander, is likely to be the latest achievement in a series of almost flawless Chinese lunar exploration missions since 2007.
Here’s what you need to know about the Chang’e-6 mission’s return to Earth.
When is the landing and how can I track it?
The Chinese space agency has yet to confirm when the mission will be completed.
But according to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Chang’e-6 return capsule is expected to land at 1:41 a.m. Eastern Time, or 1:41 p.m. local time, in the Siziwang Banner area of Inner Mongolia, a region in northern China.
The Times will publish an embedded live video stream when the Chinese space agency provides one closer to the expected landing time.
What is the far side of the moon?
First of all, don’t call it the dark side of the moon – it gets plenty of sunlight there.
But when you look up into the sky from Earth, you only ever see one side of the Moon, the one facing you. Its surface is dotted with vast, dark plains where ancient lava once flowed.
The far side of the moon – the half that is hidden from us on Earth – is different. It has fewer of these plains, more craters and a thicker crust, although scientists aren’t sure why.
Maybe it won’t be a mystery for much longer. China has landed two missions there to study why the Earth is so different from the near side.
What is China’s Chang’e Program?
Named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e (pronounced “Chong-uh”), China’s lunar exploration program was originally designed in three phases: orbiting, landing, and sampling. The first two spacecraft, Chang’e-1 and 2, orbited the moon, taking images and mapping its surface. Chang’e-3 landed on the near side of the moon in 2013, and Chang’e-4 did the same on the far side in 2019. Rovers from both missions then studied the lunar surface in more detail.
A year later, Chang’e-5 landed and collected nearly four pounds of lunar regolith, which was then sent to Earth. With this mission, China became the third country, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to collect a sample from the Moon.
What has happened so far during Chang’e-6?
Chang’e-6 launched on May 3 with even bigger plans: to bring back material from the far side of the moon. Because that half never faces Earth, direct communication with landers on the far side of the moon is impossible, making a successful approach difficult. The Chinese space agency used two satellites orbiting the moon, Queqiao and Queqiao-2, to stay in contact with Chang’e-6 during the mission.
The spacecraft spent a few weeks in lunar orbit and then landed on the moon in June, landing at a site on the edge of the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the oldest and deepest impact crater on the moon.
Equipped with a mechanical shovel and a drill, Chang’e-6 spent two days collecting lunar rocks and dust from its surroundings and the moon’s subsurface. These samples were then stored in the spacecraft. A small rover attached to the side of the spacecraft took a photo of the lander with a Chinese flag raised.
On June 3, a rocket from the spacecraft lifted off and sent the samples into the moon’s orbit. On June 6, the materials were then reunited with a spacecraft that had remained in orbit and was preparing to return to Earth.
Sometime on Tuesday, the sample container will attempt to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. If the mission is as successful as Chang’e-4, China will recover the materials and begin scientific study of their contents.