Current location:Culture Connection news portal > business
Chang'e 6 to carry foreign science payloads
Culture Connection news portal2024-05-21 11:49:30【business】7People have gathered around
IntroductionChina's upcoming lunar mission has garnered global attention for more reasons than one. The Chan
China's upcoming lunar mission has garnered global attention for more reasons than one. The Chang'e 6 robotic probe will not only make an ambitious and unprecedented attempt to collect samples from the lunar far side, it will also carry three European science payloads to the site.
The mission holds great significance because the new samples will enable scientists to study and better understand the history and the physics of the moon.
According to the China National Space Administration, the three foreign science payloads include a radon measuring instrument from France's national space agency that will help study the movement of lunar dust and some volatile chemicals between the lunar regolith, a layer of unconsolidated rocky material, and the lunar exosphere.
The second foreign science payload is a passive laser retroreflector from Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics that will be used as a laser range-finder for the Chang'e 6 lander.
The third payload, developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics with support from the European Space Agency, will be the first-ever dedicated negative ion instrument flown beyond Earth. It will seek to detect negative ions emitted from the lunar surface as a result of interaction with solar wind.
More than 20 proposals from foreign space agencies and research organizations contested for the golden opportunity to join the Chang'e 6 mission and touch down on the moon's little-known far side, which has so far been the subject of scientific speculation and wild imagination. The three from France, Italy and Sweden emerged as winners.
Yang Yuguang, a senior space industry observer and vice-chair of the International Astronautical Federation's Space Transportation Committee, said that opening a nation's spacecraft to other nations' science payloads has become a common practice among space powers because international cooperation can maximize a mission's scientific value.
"An opportunity to put your science devices on a spacecraft, especially a historic one like the Chang'e 6, is always enthusiastically sought by scientists around the world," he said.
China and Europe have engaged in space industry cooperation for many years, and such collaborative projects have brought benefits to both sides, Yang said, citing the successful cooperation in data relay during China's Tianwen 1 Mars mission.
Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said the Chang'e 6 mission will offer European scientists the first chance to deploy their instruments on the lunar far side, which will be a landmark moment for the planetary research community in Europe.
"Through this move, China has shown its sincerity and capability to bolster international space cooperation, and it will also definitely advance the collaboration in lunar exploration and development between China and Europe," Wang said.
A Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket, carrying the Chang'e 6 robotic probe, is scheduled to blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the east coast of Hainan province in the coming weeks.
If everything goes according to plan, the spacecraft will make a series of flight maneuvers and finally land in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
Like Chang'e 5, its predecessor, the Chang'e 6 spacecraft is a product of the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing and also consists of four components — an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a reentry module.
After collecting dust and rocks on the moon, the ascender will transport the samples to the lunar orbit for transfer into the reentry module, which will carry them to Earth.
Meanwhile, scientific instruments on the lander will continue to perform their operations as long as they have sufficient power.
The United States, the former Soviet Union and China have brought lunar samples to Earth, but none has ever obtained soil from the far side of the moon.
Although the far side had been previously photographed by spacecraft, no probe had ever touched down on it until China's Chang'e 4 mission, which landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin in January 2019.
Address of this article:http://solomonislands.barryexit.org/html-70e999832.html
Very good!(7267)
Related articles
- Kosovo prepares a new draft law on renting prison cells to Denmark after the first proposal failed
- Highlights of Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
- Roadside Concerts Become a Hit in SW China's Guizhou
- Unique Party Held for Upcoming Tibetan New Year
- Rangers are undefeated at .500 to keep World Series champs from a losing record with Bochy
- World Insights: Youth, Education Exchanges 'Big Part of Way Moving China
- Roadside Concerts Become a Hit in SW China's Guizhou
- Popular TV Drama Turns Spotlight on Preservation of Shanghai Dialect
- Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf is spotted on the streets of Gavin and Stacey's hometown Barry
- Highlights of Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
Popular articles
Recommended
Six killed in a 'foiled coup' in Congo, the army says
Economic Keywords at 2024 'Two Sessions'
Silk Flowers Help Local Women Gain Employment in Hebei
Roadside Concerts Become a Hit in SW China's Guizhou
Brazil replaces injured goalkeeper Ederson in Copa America squad
Push for More Parental Care Leave Gathers Pace
Chinese premier holds talks with Dominican PM
Highlights of Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
Links
- Dortmund's Reus hopes to sign off in style
- Hospital knife rampage leaves more than ten people dead or wounded in China
- Ministers roll out a £64 million plan to help long
- Zelensky 'assassination plot foiled' as Ukraine detains two of its own counter
- WNBA to begin full
- Ryan Garcia reportedly wants 2nd drug sample tested after 1st was positive for banned substance
- Harvey Weinstein back at Rikers Island after hospital stay
- Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities
- Where were Kanye West and Bianca Censori's Met Gala invites? As his ex
- Madrid Open: Rublev overcomes illness to win title