Chang’e 5 Mission is an important topic in the Science and Technology section of the UPSC Exam. Hence, for the IAS Exam, aspirants should know about Chang’e 5 Mission as it is featured in the news in some form or the other often.
In this article, you can read all about China’s Chang’e 5 Mission.
Chang’e 5 Mission
Image source: https://spaceflight101.com/
Chang’e 5 spacecraft, named after the ancient Chinese goddess, is a Chinese unmanned spacecraft which delivered to earth nearly 2 kg of rock fragments and dust from its landing site and immediate surroundings on the moon.
It was launched on 23rd November 2020 from Wenchang Space Launch Centre (China), landed on the moon on 1st December 2020, and returned to earth on 16th December 2020, making China the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to return samples of the moon to the earth. Chang’e 5 is the fifth lunar exploration mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program and China’s first lunar sample-return mission.
Also read: Tianwen 1 Mission on Mars (China’s Mars Mission)
Chang’e 5 Mission Objectives
The objective of the Chang’e 5 Mission:
- To drill 2 metres beneath the moon’s surface, scoop up about 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of rocks and other debris, then bring it back to the earth.
- This will help scientists learn more about:
- Origin of the moon,
- Volcanic surface on the interior and exterior of the moon,
- How the earth and the moon evolved,
- When the moon’s magnetic field, its key to protect any form of life on its surface from the sun’s radiation, dissipates, etc.
Landing of Chang’e 5:
- Chang’e 5 landed in the Northern Oceanus Procellarum, a site near a huge volcanic complex called Mons Rümker, located in the northwest lunar nearside.
- The landing site of Chang’e 5 is named Statio Tianchuan. It is within the Procellarum KREEP terrain, a thin crust with elevated heat-producing elements and prolonged volcanism.
- The landing area of Chang’e 5 is characterised by some of the youngest mare basalts on the moon with thorium, elevated titanium and olivine abundance.
- This area has never been sampled by Apollo or Luna Mission.
Chang’e 5 Key Findings
Chang’e 5 collected 90% of its materials on its landing site and its immediate surroundings, which are of a type termed ‘mare basalts’.
- Visible to us as the darker grey areas, these volcanic rocks are those that are spilt over much of the nearside of the moon as ancient eruptions of lava.
- The 10% of the collected materials, however, have distinctly different ‘exotic’ chemical compositions.
- The rocks brought back by Chang’e are different from those brought back and sampled by the American and the Soviet missions nearly 50 years ago.
- This retrieves fragments of the youngest lunar rocks ever brought back to the laboratories of the earth for analysis.
Significance of the ‘exotic’ chemical compositions:
- The 10% distinct fragments may preserve records of other parts of the lunar surface.
- These fragments could also give an insight into the types of space rocks that make the moon’s surface.
- Past episodes of the energetic, fountain-like volcanic activity on the moon could be understood to a certain extent from these ‘exotic’ chemical compositions.
- Potential sources of rapidly cooled glassy material are being looked into by researchers.
- These glassy droplets have been traced to extinct volcanic vents known as ‘Rima Mairan’ and ‘Rima Sharp’.
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