China is preparing for the task of bringing goods back from the moon

Wenshang, China (API) – For the first time in almost half a century, Chinese technicians on Monday made final preparations for a mission to bring objects back from the lunar surface – an attempt to boost human understanding of the moon and the solar system in general.

Song 5 – Named for the Chinese moon goddess – this is the most ambitious lunar mission in the country. If successful, it could be a major breakthrough for China’s space program, and some experts say it could lead to the return of samples from Mars or even a team’s lunar mission.

Four blocks of the Chang 5 spacecraft are expected to be launched into space on Tuesday on a large Long March-5 rocket from the Wensang Launch Center off the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.

The secret Chinese National Space Administration has only said that a launch is planned for late November, although the lunar exploration program said in a statement on Monday that the success of the orbit, landing and return would “lay a solid foundation for future missions.”

According to NASA, the main task is to drill 2 meters (approximately 7 feet) below the surface of the moon and bring about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rock and other debris to Earth. This will provide scientists with the first opportunity to study newly discovered lunar objects after their American and Russian voyages in the 1960s and 1970s.

After a three-day journey from Earth, Chang 5 Lander’s time on the moon will be shorter and sweeter. It can only be on a lunar day or about 14 Earth days because there are no radioisotope heating units to withstand the lunar frost nights.

The lander will dig out its drill and robotic arm objects and transfer them to a place called the ascendant, which will lift them from the moon and chop them with a “service capsule”. The materials are then moved to a capsule to return home to Earth.

The technical complexity of the Song 5, with its four components, “makes it significant in many ways,” said John Johnson-Freese, an astronaut at the U.S. Navy College of War.

“China is showing itself to develop and successfully implement sustainable high-tech projects that are important for regional influence and global partnership,” he said.

In particular, the ability to collect samples from space is growing in value, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astronomy. He said other countries planning to retrieve objects from meteorites or Mars could look at China’s experience.

Although the mission is “really challenging”, McDowell said China has already landed twice on the moon with its Chang 3 and Chang 4 missions, and could return to Earth in 2014 with the Chang 5 test mission, re-entering and landing a capsule. The rest is to show that it can collect samples and retrieve them from the moon.

“As a result, I am very confident that China can pull this off,” he said.

This mission has been a bold one for China since it first launched a man into space in 2003, making it the only third country after the United States and Russia to do so.

Although China’s many space travel achievements, including building a test space station and conducting space travel, have reproduced in other countries over the years, the CNSA is now moving to new territory.

Song 4 – the first soft landing on the moon’s relatively unexplored distance nearly two years ago – is currently collecting full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, important information for any country planning to send astronauts to the moon.

China was one of three countries that embarked on a voyage to Mars in July, with an orbit and a rover in the case of China looking for signs of water on the red planet. CNSA says Tianwen 1 spacecraft is scheduled to reach Mars in February.

China is increasingly involved in travel with foreign countries, and the European space agency will provide important ground station information for the Chang 5.

However, except for China’s partnership with the International Space Station, US law prohibits most cooperation with NASA. This prompted China to start work on its own space station and launch its own projects, which has created a constant rivalry with Japan and India, seeking to achieve new achievements in space between Asian countries.

China’s space program has progressed cautiously, with some setbacks in recent years. The Long March-5 rocket, nicknamed the “Fat 5” due to its bulky shape, failed in the previous launch attempt, but has since operated without a hitch, including launching the Chang 4.

“China operates at a very high level, building construction blocks for long-term use for a wide variety of tasks,” Fries-Johnson said. China’s one-sided dictatorship allows “often difficult long-term political will in democracies.”

Experts say that while the United States is closely following China’s victories, it is unlikely to cooperate with China in space amid political suspicions, sharp military rivalries and allegations of Chinese technology theft.

“A change in US policy on space cooperation is unlikely to attract government attention in the future,” Johnson-Fries said.