On May 3, 2024 China has successfully launched its sixth mission to the moon called Chang’e-6 mission. This 53-day mission is unique in a sense that it would be the first-ever attempt by any country to obtain samples from the far-side of the moon. Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a very intricate lunar programme which began with the launch of Chang’e 1 orbiter on October 24, 2007 and is found making a step-by-step approach towards achieving their short-term goal of landing a human on the moon’s surface by 2030.
The first phase of China’s programme included two orbiter missions, which meant sending the satellites in the moon’s vicinity, essentially for taking photographs for mapping of the moon’s surface. The second orbiter, Chang’e 2, was launched on October 1, 2010. The next phase was all about securing soft-landing of the rovers and landers on the surface of the moon. During the missions (Chang’e 3 & 4) China was able to successfully land the rover and lander on different locations on the moon. Chang’e 3 mission landed on the moon on December 14, 2013 and January 3, 2019, China’s Chang’e 4 successfully landed on the farside of the moon.
Chang’e-5 (November 23, 2020), a lunar sample-return mission is a part of the third phase of China’s moon programme. In the post-cold war era, this is for the first time a sample has been brought back to the earth from the moon’s surface. Earlier, Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976 had brought the sample back and the only other country to do so was the US during their various Apollo missions. Chang’e-5 has successfully collected 1,731 grams of material from nearside the moon.
Chang’e-6 mission is also part of the third phase. It is known to have a launch mass of 8,200 kg. It has a heavy lander with around 3,200 kg mass, while the ascent vehicle is about 700 kg. During March 2024, China launched a relay satellite (Queqiao-2) for establishment of communication with earth from the moon’s far side.
Chang’e-6 mission is somewhat like the earlier sample return mission. The current mission would be having four modules. After landing on the lunar surface, the lander will collect about 2 kg of samples. For this purpose, the lander would collect the samples from a region two metres below the surface, where it had landed. Then it would place the collected material into an attached ascent vehicle. Subsequently, this vehicle would be launched into lunar orbit and would dock with an orbiter that is already rotating in the lunar orbit. After this docking the collected material would be transferred into a sample-return capsule. Finally, this capsule would deliver the material to Earth, where a detailed analysis of its structures and characteristics would be carried out. Scientists from China have analysed the samples picked up by the Chang’e-5 mission and the impending analyses would help them to understand how different the lunar mantle is on the farside versus the nearside. Essentially, they would be able to compare the geological characteristics of nearside and farside regions on the lunar surface.
This mission has significant international participation. It has four main payloads. There is a French instrument for studying various characteristics of the lunar dust. An Italian gadget with a retroreflector which helps to precisely measure distances from the lander to orbit. The task for the measurement of negative ions reflected by the lunar surface would be undertaken by Swedish equipment. In addition, a Pakistani ICUBE-Q CubeSat orbiter with two optical cameras would help to image the lunar surface and obtain lunar magnetic field data. It is important to note that China is proposing to make the samples collected by Chang’s-6 mission available for scientific research to the international community. However, this may take some time since initially the Chinese scientific community would be analysing these samples. In the case of the samples returned by the Chang’e-5 mission, China had followed similar practice.
After the launch of Chang’e-6 mission the rhetorical debate has started once again that missions to moon have been more competitive and many players are trying to outdo each other. In Asian context there has been the longstanding debate about the so-called Asian space race/Asian moon race. It is well understood that some Asian states are having their specific moon agendas. However, the devil lies in the details and details are normally overlooked and just because some states are attempting missions to moon in the same time span, an ‘impression’ is spread that they are racing with each other.
Japan could be said to have started making serious attempts to establish a moon programme since the 1990s. Hiten, a technology demonstration satellite was launched on January 24, 1990. Here the purpose was to test and verify the technologies for future missions to the moon and other planets. During this mission a small satellite was released in the vicinity of the moon. Finally, Hiten intentionally crashed into the moon on April 10, 1993.
However, Japan did face problems with a few other missions and only on September 14, 2007 they were successful with a launch of lunar orbiter SELENE (Kaguya). Subsequently, by mid-January 2024 Japan was able to launch its solar-powered SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) and achieve success with soft-landing on the moon. Thus, Japan became the fifth country in the world to achieve this success. Interestingly, despite making a lopsided touchdown, this craft has performed well. The most creditable aspect of this mission is that till now it has survived its third week-long night on the moon. The system was designed to last for 14-Earth days on the moon surface. However, it has come into effect twice, recently on April 23, indicating that during the harsh nights on the moon (which lasts for about 14-earth days), the system was able to withstand very cold temperatures in the range of around minus 200 degrees celsius.
Japan launched its orbiter during 2007 and only by 2024 it was able to perform soft-landing on the moon. In the case of India, the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter was launched on October 22, 2008, but it took 15 years to perform soft-landing on the lunar surface. This happened on August 23, 2023 with the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission. India’s rover and lander system was designed to work for one lunar-day (14-earth days) and worked perfectly during that period. There were some exceptions that the system may get up after surviving a cold lunar light, however, that was not the case. Another Asian state having an active moon programme is UAE, however, their attempt to soft-land on the moon failed during 2023.
In the case of China, the first orbiter mission happened on October 24, 2007 and by December 2013 China was successful towards making its rover-lander unit function perfectly on the moon’s surface. The Chang’e-3 mission was designed to survive for one year, but is still working after ten years and instruments have survived many lunar nights. Today, Chang’e-3’s lander is active, but the rover had stopped working some years back. The Chang’e-4 was also planned for one year, but remains operational even after five years. At present, India and Japan are planning for a sample return mission, while China has already launched its second such mission.
So far, China has been successful with its moon agenda. They have planned their programme in a very systematic and step-by-step fashion. Their programme is progressing in a time bound fashion. One of the important reasons behind China’s success in the moon domain could be their belief in getting the ‘basics’ right. Before making entry into the moon domain, they had ensured that they had a full range of mature space technology from launching systems to sensors to relay satellite technology to required tracking and ground infrastructure in place. There was a scientific and policy clarity before making an entry into the moon domain. Today, China is way ahead of other Asian states in the moon ‘department’.
Ajey Lele researches space issues and is the author of the book Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO.
