China is preparing to send a robotic, unmanned spaceship on a round-trip to the far side of the moon this week, in a technically demanding mission dubbed Chang’e 6, Reuters reports. The journey is expected to take 53 days to complete.
Chang’e 6 aims to be the world’s first space mission to retrieve rocks and soil from the side of the moon that is not visible from Earth. It will rely on a recently deployed relay satellite for navigation.
US space journalist and author Leonard David told Reuters that, if successful, the “milestone-making event [will help] fill in the blanks about the still-murky origin of our Moon.”
[See more: China has unveiled the world’s first high-definition moon atlas]
China’s first unmanned Chang’e mission took place in 2007, and it brought back samples from the moon’s near side in 2020. Chang’e 6 will be the first of three missions (the others are scheduled for 2026 and 2028) that will explore the moon’s south pole for water, in the form of polar ice. China also plans to build an outpost there with Russia.
Chinese astronauts are expected to land on the moon for the first time in 2030. The US, meanwhile, is planning to return its astronauts to the moon in 2026 as part of the NASA-led Artemis programme.
Chang’e 6 will carry payloads from France, Italy, Sweden and Pakistan, while Chang’e 7 will carry payloads from Russia, Switzerland and Thailand.
