Chang'e-5 by Jade Rosser

What is Chang'e-5?

jaderosser — 2024-02-28 17:10:38 UTC

Chang'e-5 is a Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) lunar sample return mission that was accomplished in 2020. The mission goal was to land in the Mons Rumker region of Oceanus Procellarum, operate for one lunar day, (two Earth weeks), and return a roughly 2kg sample of lunar regolith.

The Return

jaderosser — 2024-02-28 17:50:35 UTC

(GIF is not the Chang'e-5) The Chang'e-5 managed to collect the samples and retured to Earth in the return capsule landing in the Siziwang Banner Grassland of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, China

Mission Profile

jaderosser — 2024-02-28 17:55:02 UTC

Chang'e-5 launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on Hainan Island, China on a Long March 5 on November 23rd 2020 at 3:30PM EST. There were two planned trajectory changes that happened on November 24th and the 25th. The Chang'e-5 went into orbit around the moon on November 28th after a 17 minute thruster firing, and then the Chang'e-5 lowered into it's nominal 200km circular orbit. The descender craft separated from the orbiter on November 29th. Chang'e-5 landed in it's intended landed place (Mons Rumker in the Oceanus Procellarum) on December first. The lander was capable of operating for one lunar day, so 2 Earth weeks. Most of the Chang'e-5's acvitity was within the first 48 hours. 15 Samples were planned, and the craft collected these on December 2nd from as far as 1 metre into the Moon's crust. Chang'e-5 stayed near the moon for a week longer before returning to Earth with the samples.

Features of the Chang'e-5

jaderosser — 2024-02-28 18:09:25 UTC

The Chang'e-5 had a mass of 8200kg. Propulsion into space was provided by a 3000N rocket. Power was provided by solar panels. Some features on the Chang'e-5 included a robotic arm with a sampling scoop, a coring drill, and a sample chamber that could return up to 4kg of lunar regolith. More features were that it had a panoramic camera, a landing camera, a Lunar Penetrating Regolith Radar, along with a visible and near-infrared Lunar Mineralogical Spectrometer. The ascender vehicle used a 3000N thrust booster to lift off fo the lunar surface.

Chang'e-5 Landing on the Moon

jaderosser — 2024-02-29 21:01:09 UTC

This is a video posted by SciNews on Youtube showing the landing of the Chang'e-5 Spacecraft via the Landing Camera

The Spacecraft

jaderosser — 2024-02-29 21:14:12 UTC

The Chang'e-5 consisted of 4 modules which would go into space orbit. The descender was made up of two modules that would detach from the orbiter, which was made of the other two modules, and would land on the moon. One module was the lander, which was equipped to collect samples and transfer them to the second module, which was the ascent vehicle. The ascent vehicle was designed to send it from the lunar surface into orbit. From there, it docked with the third module, the service capsule. After all this, the samples would be sent to the fourth module, the return module finally. This fourth module would be the one to leave the lunar surface and return to Earth.

About the Samples

jaderosser — 2024-03-01 18:44:12 UTC

The samples that the Chang'e-5 mission collected were all relatively young, being only 2 billion years old. These samples have helped scientists learn about later stages of the Moon's history, and about how Earth along with the how the Solar System formed. These samples are also far younger than the samples collected by NASA's Apollo program's, as NASA's samples were ranged between 3.4-4.4 billion years old.

Fun Fact!

jaderosser — 2024-03-01 18:54:46 UTC

Prior to Chang'e-5, no spacecraft has returned a sample of the Moon to Earth since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976. The Chang'e-5 overtook this mission with a spacecraft with similar architecture similar to NASA's Apollo Missions.

Works Cited

jaderosser — 2024-03-01 19:12:27 UTC