“china did it on time”
2024-09-25
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editor's note: xi jinping, general secretary of the cpc central committee, president of the people's republic of china, and chairman of the central military commission, delivered an important speech when meeting with representatives of the chang'e-6 lunar exploration mission at the great hall of the people on the morning of the 23rd. as the most technologically advanced lunar exploration mission in my country's aerospace history, chang'e-6 achieved the first return of samples from the far side of the moon in human history, laying a solid foundation for my country's future lunar and planetary exploration.
on june 25, 2024, the chang'e-6 returner accurately landed in the designated area of siziwang banner, inner mongolia, and operated normally, realizing the world's first sample return from the back of the moon.
“china did it on time”
when talking about china's chang'e lunar exploration project, many chinese netizens like to talk about "china did it on time." in the early 21st century, china, europe, japan, india and other countries successively proposed their own lunar exploration plans, but in the end, only china completed the three-step lunar exploration plan of "orbiting, landing and returning" as scheduled.
at the beginning of the new century, my country made a major strategic decision to implement the lunar exploration project and determined the three-step overall plan of "orbiting, landing, and returning". the "chang'e" lunar exploration project started. since the project was officially launched in january 2004, the chang'e lunar exploration project has gone through 20 years. today, china has achieved solid progress in the field of lunar exploration, from "following" to "running side by side" and then to "leading" in part, and has written a strong and colorful chapter in the history of human lunar exploration.
on october 24, 2007, chang'e-1 took off from the xichang satellite launch center. on november 5, chang'e-1 arrived near the moon, implemented the perigee "brake", and was then accurately captured by the moon's gravity and successfully orbited the moon; on november 20, it sent back the first image of the moon's surface, which was a breakthrough in china's lunar exploration and the third milestone in my country's space history after the success of artificial earth satellites and manned space flights. "from the moment chang'e-1 flew to the moon, i knew that once the door to the moon was opened, the pace of deep space exploration would not stop." said academician sun jiadong, the first chief designer of the lunar exploration project.
as the backup satellite of chang'e-1, chang'e-2, launched on october 1, 2010, not only further acquired detailed images of the lunar surface to provide a basis for the subsequent optimization of the landing area, but also carried out a number of expansion experiments, creating a precedent for china's space industry to carry out multi-target and multi-task exploration of the moon, lagrange points and asteroids through a single launch.
in december 2013, chang'e-3 achieved the first soft landing of a chinese spacecraft on a celestial body other than the earth. it overcame the three major technical difficulties of reverse thrust deceleration, autonomous control and landing buffer when landing on the moon, and landed safely in the area east of the moon's rainbow bay. the intelligent landing technology of hovering and obstacle avoidance adopted by it is at the international advanced level, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent landing of chang'e-4 and chang'e-5. on december 15, the chang'e-3 lander and the yutu lunar rover took photos of each other, marking that my country has become the third country in the world to master the technology of landing and exploring the moon. until now, the chang'e-3 lander is still working on the moon. it is currently the spacecraft with the longest working time on the moon in the world, and it is breaking world records every day.
as a backup for chang'e-3, chang'e-4, which was successfully launched on december 8, 2018, completed a soft landing in the von karman crater on the far side of the moon on january 3, 2019, and then released the yutu-2 lunar rover to conduct patrol exploration, creating many firsts in the world again. to date, the chang'e-4 lander and yutu-2 lunar rover are still "in service beyond their service life". yutu-2 is currently the lunar rover with the longest working time on the moon in the world, and it continues to break world records.
on november 24, 2020, chang'e 5 was launched. from launch to return, it underwent 23 major orbital controls and 6 major separation controls, as well as many high-risk projects such as powered descent, lunar takeoff, and rendezvous and docking. it was the most complex aerospace project in my country at the time. the returner of chang'e 5 successfully returned to earth on december 17, 2020, carrying 1,731 grams of lunar samples. my country thus became the third country in the world to return samples from the moon to earth.
the results of chang'e 6 have attracted great attention from the outside world
chang'e-6 completed the first sample return from the far side of the moon in human history, breaking through a number of key technologies, and the results achieved have attracted great attention from the outside world.
in the vast journey of exploring the moon, humans have collected samples from the moon 10 times, all on the front side of the moon, including the chang'e 5 sample. in a sense, humans have only known half of the moon so far. the chang'e 6 mission brought back 1,935.3 grams of precious samples from the back side of the moon.
according to a report by deutsche presse-agentur on september 17, a research paper published by chinese researchers in china's national science review on the 17th showed that the first round of testing and analysis of samples retrieved from the back of the moon by the chang'e-6 probe showed that its soil properties are different from those on the front of the moon.
western media have highlighted the firsts created by china's lunar exploration mission in their reports. cnn said that chang'e 6 "returned to earth with historic samples from the far side of the moon." the new york times said that china became the first country to retrieve rocks from the far side of the moon. the samples brought back by the chang'e 6 mission may contain clues to the origins of the moon and the earth, and are the latest achievements of china's lunar exploration project.
yang yuguang, vice chairman of the international astronautical federation's space transportation committee, said in an interview with the global times that this is the first sample return mission from the back of the moon, and also one of only two unmanned autonomous rendezvous and docking missions in lunar orbit. the technical content of the mission itself is very high. this mission further consolidates my country's international advantages in this field.
we look forward to working with more international peers
outer space is the common territory of mankind, and space exploration is the common cause of mankind. china's lunar exploration project has provided a broad stage for international scientific and technological cooperation and contributed chinese wisdom and strength to global deep space exploration.
the 1,731 grams of lunar soil brought back by chang'e-5 is the first sample of young volcanic rock on the lunar surface obtained by humans. so far, the national space administration has issued 7 batches of 85.48 grams of scientific research samples to 131 research teams in china, and produced more than 100 scientific papers, which have refreshed human understanding of lunar science in terms of basic physical properties, material composition, late volcanic activity, and space weathering and hydroxyl water on the lunar surface. for example, by determining the formation age of lunar soil samples, the end time of lunar volcanic activity was postponed by about 800 million years, and the sixth new mineral on the moon, "chang'e stone", was discovered. at the same time, china also announced that the chang'e-5 lunar scientific research samples are open to international applications, and welcomes scientists from all countries to conduct joint research and share results.
in terms of international cooperation, the chang'e-6 mission carried a number of international payloads, including the european space agency's lunar surface negative ion analyzer, the french radon gas detector, the italian laser corner reflector, and the pakistani cubesat. the pragmatic and efficient international cooperation has received widespread attention and praise from the international community. among them, after the chang'e-6 probe implemented near-moon braking, the pakistani cubesat successfully separated, took and successfully sent back lunar images, and the china national space administration also handed over the cubesat data to pakistan. the french radon gas detector's detection mission was successfully completed, becoming a "permanent" resident on the back of the moon. during the chang'e-6 mission, scientists, engineers and technical personnel from china and france formed a cooperative team to participate in the operation of the radon gas measuring instrument at the national astronomical observatory. this was the first cooperation between china and france in the field of deep space exploration.
regarding the international cooperation on chang'e-6 samples and data, liu yunfeng, head of the international cooperation department of the national space administration, said that the national space administration has successively formulated the lunar sample management measures and the implementation rules for international cooperation on lunar samples and scientific data, and announced in detail the application process for lunar sample research and specific information on conducting international cooperation on lunar samples.
after the chang'e-6 mission, china will also carry out the chang'e-7 and chang'e-8 missions. the mission of chang'e-7 is mainly to survey the resources of the lunar south pole, while chang'e-8 will conduct technical verification of the in-situ utilization of lunar resources. bian zhigang, deputy director of the national space administration, said earlier, "we look forward to working with more international counterparts to deepen various forms of international exchanges and cooperation in space."
the national space administration announced on september 24 that after completing the chang'e 6 mission, china's lunar exploration project will lay the foundation for the international lunar research station through two more launch missions. according to the plan, my country will launch chang'e 7 in 2026 and chang'e 8 around 2028. bian zhigang introduced that around 2035, my country will build a basic lunar research station. guan feng, director of the lunar exploration and space engineering center of the national space administration, said that chang'e 8 must consider the communication capability. there will definitely be wireless networks and energy on the moon. as for whether vegetables can be grown, scientists are still studying it. chang'e 8 may conduct scientific research in this area.
