WENCHANG, China (AP) β China launched an ambitious mission on Tuesday to bring back rocks and debris from the moonβs surface for the first time in more than 40 years β an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally.
Changβe 5 β named for the Chinese moon goddess β is the countryβs boldest lunar mission yet. If successful, it would be a major advance for Chinaβs space program, and some experts say it could pave the way for bringing samples back from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.
The four modules of the Changβe 5 spacecraft blasted off at just after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday (2030 GMT Monday, 3:30 p.m. EST Monday) atop a massive Long March-5Y rocket from the Wenchang launch center along the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.
Minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft separated from the rocketβs first and second stages and slipped into Earth-moon transfer orbit. About an hour later, Changβe 5 opened its solar panels to provide its independent power source.
Spacecraft typically take three days to reach the moon.
The launch was carried live by national broadcaster CCTV which then switched to computer animation to show its progress into outer space.
The missionβs key task is to drill 2 meters (almost 7 feet) beneath the moonβs surface and scoop up about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and other debris to be brought back to Earth, according to NASA. That would offer the first opportunity for scientists to study newly obtained lunar material since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Changβe 5 landerβs time on the moon is scheduled to be short and sweet. It can only stay one lunar daytime, or about 14 Earth days, because it lacks the radioisotope heating units to withstand the moonβs freezing nights.
The lander will dig for materials with its drill and robotic arm and transfer them to whatβs called an ascender, which will lift off from the moon and dock with the service capsule. The materials will then be moved to the return capsule to be hauled back to Earth.
The technical complexity of Changβe 5, with its four components, makes it βremarkable in many ways,β said Joan Johnson-Freese, a space expert at the U.S. Naval War College.
βChina is showing itself capable of developing and successfully carrying out sustained high-tech programs, important for regional influence and potentially global partnerships,β she 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 Astrophysics. Other countries planning to retrieve material from asteroids or even Mars may look to Chinaβs experience, he said.
While the mission is βindeed challenging,β McDowell said China has already landed twice on the moon with its Changβe 3 and Changβe 4 missions, and showed with a 2014 Changβe 5 test mission that it can navigate back to Earth, re-enter and land a capsule. All thatβs left is to show it can collect samples and take off again from the moon.
βAs a result of this, Iβm pretty optimistic that China can pull this off,β he said.
The mission is among Chinaβs boldest since it first put a man in space in 2003, becoming only the third nation to do so after the U.S. and Russia.
Changβe 5 and future lunar missions aim to βprovide better technical support for future scientific and exploration activities,β Pei Zhaoyu, mission spokesperson and deputy director of the Chinese National Space Administrationβs Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center told reporters at a Monday briefing.
βScientific needs and technical and economic conditionsβ would determine whether China decides to send a crewed mission to the moon, said Pei, whose comments were embargoed until after the launch. βI think future exploration activities on the moon are most likely to be carried out in a human-machine combination.β
While many of Chinaβs crewed spaceflight achievements, including building an experimental space station and conducting a spacewalk, reproduce those of other countries from years past, the CNSA is now moving into new territory.
Changβe 4 β which made the first soft landing on the moonβs relatively unexplored far side almost two years ago β is currently collecting full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, information vital for any country that plans to send astronauts to the moon.
China in July became one of three countries to have launched a mission to Mars, in Chinaβs case an orbiter and a rover that will search for signs of water on the red planet. The CNSA says the spacecraft Tianwen 1 is on course to arrive at Mars around February.
China has increasingly engaged with foreign countries on missions, and the European Space Agency will be providing important ground station information for Changβe 5.
U.S. law, however, still prevents most collaborations with NASA, excluding China from partnering with the International Space Station. That has prompted China to start work on its own space station and launch its own programs that have put it in a steady competition with Japan and India, among Asian nations seeking to notch new achievements in space.
Chinaβs space program has progressed cautiously, with relatively few setbacks in recent years. The rocket being used for the current launch failed on a previous launch attempt, but has since performed without a glitch, including launching Changβe 4.
βChina works very incrementally, developing building blocks for long-term use for a variety of missions,β Freese-Johnson said. Chinaβs one-party authoritarian system also allows for βprolonged political will that is often difficult in democracies,β she said.
While the U.S. has followed Chinaβs successes closely, itβs unlikely to expand cooperation with China in space amid political suspicions, a sharpening military rivalry and accusations of Chinese theft of technology, experts say.
βA change in U.S. policy regarding space cooperation is unlikely to get much government attention in the near future,β Johnson-Freese said.
