China lands a second robotic lunar probe on the far side!

[thewayne]

This probe, the Chang-e 6, touched down successfully Sunday morning Beijing time. This is their second successful landing, the first, the Chang-e 4, landed in 2019.

The mission is multi-part, and complex. The lander is a robotic probe that is slated to gather 2 kilograms of soil and dust using a drill and scoop. It will package them and place them in a ascent rocket which will then rendezvous with an orbiting unmanned ship which will return to Earth, reenter the atmosphere, and hopefully land near the Chinese space complex in Mongolia.

The region they are in is believed to be high in frozen water and is a potential base site for a future manned base. Analysis of these samples will be helpful in planning for this.

Because everything is happening on the far side of the moon, the probe would normally be in a total communications blackout. To work around this, the Chinese launched a communications relay satellite in March, the Queqiao-2. They are planning two more Chang-e missions in preparation for manned missions in 2030.

Now I would like to refer you to a book, A City On Mars, by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith. Zack is a web cartoonist and author, Kelly is a PhD scientist. They spent four years deeply immersed in researching the literature of living in space, attending conferences, talking to scientists, astronauts, and enthusiasts. And overall, their conclusion is 'No, not at this time.' There are far too many unknowns to support rushing off and building bases on the Moon or Mars. While we have a large amount of people-years in near Earth orbit, we have a total of less than a month of people living on the moon. We need a methodical study of people living in orbit, conducting controlled experiments of what happens to people living in space, which has not been done. Are the Chinese going to do it? Doubtful.

It's a good book, some of the cartoons are amusing. Recommended. It's also available as an ebook through most sources.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/01/china/china-change6-moon-landing-intl-hnk-scn/index.html

Comments

[disneydream06]

Are the Chinese going to do it? Doubtful.
Some how I think you are correct. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just do it to say a Communist Country can do it, and then worry about the consequences later. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Well, it's arguable how 'communist' China truly is.  It's sort of an elected semi-benevolent dictatorship.  The rulers know that they have a tiger by the tail and try to loosely control the population because they know that if the population realized it cohesively rose up, the government would stand no chance against a unified rebellion.  So there's a give and take between the people and the gov't.  The gov't allows a fair amount of free enterprise and people can become rich, but they still have to kowtow to the gov't.  If they don't, their business empire can find themselves absorbed by the People's Liberation Army surprisingly fast.  Pure communism doesn't work, especially on a large scale and China is truly large scale.

[disneydream06]

I guess you have to use Communism pretty loosely nowadays. :o

[thewayne]

People don't know what communism is just like they don't know what socialism is.  It's used as a scare tactic because people don't know what it is.  Russia is not a communist state: it's a dictatorship/kleptocracy.  North Korea is a theocratic hereditary dictatorship.  Cuba has some strong trappings of communism, but they were heavily dependent on support from the USSR, and after it collapsed in the late '80s/early '90s, I'm not too sure what they are.  Central and South America?  There are no communist states down there.  Asia, Vietnam has some trappings, perhaps Cambodia, not to sure about that.  But again, trappings.  They know that capitalism is a lot more profitable than anything else and greed is a big incentivizer.

[disneydream06]

It's a good thing they all hate capitalism so much. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[silveradept]

Good to see other missions succeeding, even if it makes the current powers nervous that they might be supplanted. Space is still, as far as I recall, neutral territory by treaty, so hopefully that will remain, even as we gather yet more information about where it might be a good place to try and establish lunar or Martian dwellings. (It won't happen in my lifetime, that's for sure.)

[thewayne]

The probe successfully left the moon and apparently docked with its return stage and is on its way to Earth!  Here's hoping for a successful reentry and landing.