Chang'e 5

Chang'e 5 (Chinese: 嫦娥五号; pinyin: Cháng'é wǔhào) is an unmanned Chinese lunar exploration mission currently under development, which is expected to land on the Moon by 2017.^[1][2][3] Chang'e 5 will be China's first sample return mission, aiming to return at least 2 kilograms of lunar soil and rock samples back to the Earth. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e.

Mission profile

The probe will be launched by Long March 5 rocket at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. After making a soft landing on the Moon, the lander will dig and collect a lunar sample from up to 2 meters below the surface.

Unlike earlier Soviet missions, the mission will make an automatic rendezvous and docking with the return module in lunar orbit before flying back to the Earth.^[1][4][5]

Chang'e 5-T1

Chang'e 5-T1 is an experimental unmanned lunar mission that was launched on 23 October 2014 to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the Chang'e 5 mission.^[6][7][8][9]

Lander payload

The lander will carry landing cameras, optical cameras, a mineral spectrometer, a soil gas analytical instrument, a soil composition analytical instrument, a sampling sectional thermodetector, and a robotic drilling rig.

References