【】
The 21st-century space race is heating up.
China announced that, for the second time, it landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The nation's Chang’e-6 lunar probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest impact basin on the moon, on June 2. The China National Space Administration previously landed on the far side in 2019, and has ambitious plans to land humans on the lunar surface by 2030. (NASA remains the only country to land people on the moon.)
China's space agency released video footage of the latest successful landing, which you can see in the video below, from the government-funded China Central Television, or CCTV. The lunar footage starts near the beginning of the short video, occurring between 7 and 45 seconds in. The sped-up frames show how the spacecraft hovered 100 meters (nearly 110 yards) above the surface, where it autonomously used lasers to locate lunar obstacles (like rocks or pits), before finally descending.
SEE ALSO:Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challengingLanding was just the start of the mission's lunar endeavors. Now, China aims to robotically collect samples and return them to Earth.
"The Chang'e-6 mission is the first human sampling and return mission from the far side of the moon," the China National Space Administration said in a statement. "It involves many engineering innovations, high risks, and great difficulty."
Tweet may have been deleted
Now, after deploying solar panels, the craft will use drills and robotic arms to collect rocks and soil. Then, an ascent vehicle, currently sitting atop the lander, will launch off the moon, ferrying these prized samples to an awaiting orbiter in space. Ultimately, the samples will plunge back to Earth in a protected capsule — similar to China's successful moon rock return in 2020.
Related Stories
- The U.S. is exploring a railroad for the moon. It has a good reason.
- NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.
- The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
- NASA's Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman isn't perfect
- If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know
China isn't the only entity to robotically land on the moon in 2024 — though its landing appears to be the most successful. In January, Japan's SLIM spacecraft landed on its head, though it made an unprecedented precision landing (coming within 10 meters, or some 30 feet, of its target). The following month, a mission largely funded by NASA snapped a leg during an off-kilter landing, and came to rest slumped on its side. These events underscore how challenging it remains to land on the moon — a world with virtually no atmosphere to help slow a spacecraft down, nor GPS guidance to assist with a controlled descent.
NASA, however, has successfully landed six crewed missions on the moon, over a half-century ago. And it aims to soon return. The space agency's looming Artemis 3 mission is currently slated to land in September 2026. Astronauts will head to the moon's south pole, where scientists suspect water is preserved in ancient, shadowy craters.
TopicsNASA
相关文章
Airbnb activates disaster response site for Louisiana flooding
Airbnb has activated its disaster response page following the record-breaking flooding in Louisiana.2024-11-21Offers of help flood in online after Ariana Grande concert explosion
Look for the helpers. Within hours, if not minutes, of the events at an Ariana Grande concert in Man2024-11-21Even the White House doesn't know what Ivanka Trump does
Another day, another opportunity for the internet to troll the Trump family.President Donald Trump's2024-11-21Google's new Google Photos update can now automatically share your selfies
Google took to the stage at its big developer conference, Google I/O, on Wednesday and announced sev2024-11-21You can now play 'Solitaire' and 'Tic
Google just added two new fun Easter eggs to its search results. 。You can now play 。 Solitaire。and 。 Ti2024-11-21Valve is trying to stop fake games on Steam by targeting trading cards, of all things
People are taking advantage of Steam's trading card system by creating fake games, collecting cards2024-11-21
最新评论