Photo taken
at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing on Dec 1, 2020
shows the Chang'e 5 spacecraft landing on the moon. (Photo/Xinhua) Chang'e 5 reentry capsule carrying moon rocks and soil to land in Inner Mongolia Lunar rocks and soil collected by China's Chang'e 5 robotic mission
will soon land on the snow-covered grasslands of Siziwang Banner in the
Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center,
which governs the landing site, said. All preparations have been made and personnel are ready to welcome
the returning reentry capsule containing the precious samples, the
center said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. A host of factors, including the reentry capsule's small size and its
unique descending pattern, the thick snow and extremely low
temperatures, as well as the fact that the vehicle is scheduled to touch
down at night, will cause more difficulties than previous search and
recovery operations, it said. "The capsule's volume is about 14 percent that of our manned
spaceship, but the area that it may land in is 16 times greater than
that of previous manned missions," the center explained. Recovery workers have performed several full-element exercises and have also thoroughly mapped the landing area. Bian Hancheng, technical head of the recovery team from the center,
said the reentry capsule was designed to adopt a special method to
return to the ground. Because spacecraft flying back from the moon are
traveling faster than those reentering from Earth orbit, the capsule
will bounce off the atmosphere once to help it decelerate before making a
final, fiery plunge to Earth. This method is characterized by challenges to the capsule's flight control systems and a much larger landing area, he added. Yu Dengyun, deputy chief designer of China's lunar exploration
program, said the ultrafast speed during the reentry process will verify
the probe's aerodynamic design, heat-resistant materials and flight
control system. Chang'e 5, China's largest and most sophisticated lunar probe, has
four main components: an orbiter, lander, ascender and reentry capsule.
The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket
early on Nov 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province,
setting out on the country's most challenging lunar adventure and the
world's first mission since 1976 to bring lunar samples back to Earth. Late on Dec 1, the lander-ascender combination landed on the moon,
becoming the third spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface this
century after its predecessors-Chang'e 3 and 4. Shortly after landing,
they began to fulfill their major tasks-to use a drill to obtain
underground samples and then use a mechanical arm to scoop up surface
soil. Samples were packed into a vacuum container inside the ascender. The ascender lifted itself into an elliptical lunar orbit late on Dec
3. It rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-reentry capsule
combination early on Dec 6 and transferred the lunar samples into the
capsule. The ascender separated from the combination later that day and
was commanded to land on the moon on Dec 8. The orbiter-reentry combination made two orbital injection operations
over the weekend after traveling in a near-circular lunar orbit for
nearly six days. After the injection maneuvers, the pair entered a
moon-Earth transfer trajectory and began to fly back toward Earth.
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