China's Chang'e-6 will Attempt Lunar South Pole Landing Tomorrow

Chang'e 6 launched about a month ago and has been in Lunar orbit since May 8 looking for a suitable spot to land in the Aitken Basin at the Lunar South Pole , its mission is to collect about 2 kg of rocks and soil and return them to Earth , China have said once their scientists have analysed them samples will be sent out to other scientists.

The Moon is hard , the South Poll even harderer , nerves must be jangling.

Chang'e 6 is a lunar lander and sample return mission targeting the far side of the Moon within the South Pole Aitken Basin. It launched on May 3, 2024 at 09:27 UT (5:27 a.m. EDT, 5:27 p.m. Beijing Time), on a Long March 5 booster from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The spacecraft comprises four modules, a service module, lander, ascent vehicle, and reentry capsule, and has a launch mass of 8200 kg and a landed mass of roughly 3200 kg.

Chang'e 6 reached the Moon and went into a 200 x (approximately) 380,000 km altitude lunar orbit on May 8 at 02:21 UT. It slowly circularized the orbit over time. It also released the ICUBE-Q cubesat into lunar orbit on May 8. Chang'e 6 orbited for 20 days to find an appropriate landing site, somewhere within the south Apollo crater, 41-45 degrees S, 150-158 degrees W. Landing is expected to take place on June 2 at 00:05 UT (8:05 a.m. Beijing time).
nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov...

a reply to: gortex

They are reporting a landing.

apnews.com...

a reply to: Bluntone22

If successful, this is a pretty incredible feat. Landing on the Moon is no easy task, and landing on the Moon from a polar orbit, transverse to the rotation of the Moon is even more difficult. Not to mention the fact that controlling the craft from Earth in near real-time is much more difficult and requires multiple vehicles to accomplish.

Gortex...my oft repeated saying is..."space is hard"...so yes, 'the Moon is hard(er)'. People often ask why we haven't been back to the Moon since 1973, and the reason is, well, space is hard, and landing on an extraterrestrial body is even harder.

If the Chinese have in fact managed to successfully land on the south lunar pole, then congratulations to China are very much in order.

*** I personally don't hold out a lot of hope that the either of the lunar poles will reveal some revolutionary, game-changing, discoveries, but we will never know until we (humans) try. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I'm not going to hold my breath. In any case, congrats to China for a significant lunar accomplishment if they've been successful.

a reply to: gortex

a reply to: Bluntone22
Thanks for the update Bluntone
Another first for China then , NASA needs to pull its finger out and get Moon bound.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
I believe they've landed there looking for water as it's likely that's where they want to build their Moon base.
The space race is well and truly on , Again.

The Chinese space agency have released time lapse footage of Chang'e-6's pinpoint landing , quite impressive.

James Head, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University gives his opinion of China's achievement.

Chang’e-6 has got the swag and made a hasty retreat from the Moon and is now heading home to a heroes welcome , CNSA has released a video of Chang’e acquiring the goodies.


Meanwhile NASA is busy sitting on its thumb.

NASA's Artemis 3 is due to launch a crewed mission in 2026 , we'll see if that happens.

The CNSA have also released new images of the Far Side.

The Chang'e probe's sample return mission returned the first ever sample of rocks from the far side of the Moon today.

Chinese scientists anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5-million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that they hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon's two sides.

The moon's near side - which always faces the Earth - is flatter and has fewer impact craters. The far side always faces outer space.
news.sky.com...

Meanwhile NASA is still trying to figure out how to retrieve the samples they've prepared on Mars.

Innovation is no longer part of the American Landscape. Sad. The US Government also pulling away from Space X is petty. Why use tech that automatically lands the rocket when done.