China Set to Launch High-stakes Mission to Moon's 'Hidden' Side

The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination sit atop the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, China April 27, 2024. cnsphoto via REUTERS
The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination sit atop the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, China April 27, 2024. cnsphoto via REUTERS
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China Set to Launch High-stakes Mission to Moon's 'Hidden' Side

The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination sit atop the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, China April 27, 2024. cnsphoto via REUTERS
The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination sit atop the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, China April 27, 2024. cnsphoto via REUTERS

China will send a robotic spacecraft in coming days on a round trip to the moon's far side in the first of three technically demanding missions that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole, Reuters reported.
Since the first Chang'e mission in 2007, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, China has made leaps forward in its lunar exploration, narrowing the technological chasm with the United States and Russia.
In 2020, China brought back samples from the moon's near side in the first sample retrieval in more than four decades, confirming for the first time it could safely return an uncrewed spacecraft to Earth from the lunar surface.
This week, China is expected to launch Chang'e-6 using the backup spacecraft from the 2020 mission, and collect soil and rocks from the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.
With no direct line of sight with the Earth, Chang'e-6 must rely on a recently deployed relay satellite orbiting the moon during its 53-day mission, including a never-before attempted ascent from the moon's "hidden" side on its return journey home.
The same relay satellite will support the uncrewed Chang'e-7 and 8 missions in 2026 and 2028, respectively, when China starts to explore the south pole for water and build a rudimentary outpost with Russia. China aims to put its astronauts on the moon by 2030.
Beijing's polar plans have worried NASA, whose administrator, Bill Nelson, has repeatedly warned that China would claim any water resources as its own. Beijing says it remains committed to cooperation with all nations on building a "shared" future.
On Chang'e-6, China will carry payloads from France, Italy, Sweden and Pakistan, and on Chang'e-7, payloads from Russia, Switzerland and Thailand.
NASA is banned by US law from any collaboration, direct or indirect, with China.
Under the separate NASA-led Artemis program, US astronauts will land near the south pole in 2026, the first humans on the moon since 1972.
"International cooperation is key (to lunar exploration)," Clive Neal, professor of planetary geology at the University of Notre Dame, told Reuters. "It's just that China and the US aren't cooperating right now. I hope that will happen."

SOUTH POLE AMBITIONS
Chang'e 6 will attempt to land on the northeastern side of the vast South Pole-Aitkin Basin, the oldest known impact crater in the solar system.
The southernmost landing ever was carried out in February by IM-1, a joint mission between NASA and the Texas-based private firm Intuitive Machines.
After touchdown at Malapert A, a site near the south pole that was believed to be relatively flat, the spacecraft tilted sharply to one side amid a host of technical problems, reflecting the high-risk nature of lunar landings.
According to Reuters, the south pole has been described by scientists as the "golden belt" for lunar exploration.
Polar ice could sustain long-term research bases without relying on expensive resources transported from Earth. India's Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008 confirmed the existence of ice inside polar craters.
Chang'e-6's sample return could also shed more light on the early evolution of the moon and the inner solar system.
The lack of volcanic activity on the moon's far side means there are more craters not covered by ancient lava flows, preserving materials from the moon's early formation.
So far, all lunar samples taken by the United States and the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and China in 2020 were from the moon's near side, where volcanism had been far more active.
Chang'e-6, after a successful landing, will collect about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of samples with a mechanical scoop and a drill.
"If successful, China's Chang'e-6 mission would be a milestone-making event," Leonard David, author of "Moon Rush: The New Space Race,” told Reuters. "The robotic reach to the Moon's far side, and bringing specimens back to Earth, helps fill in the blanks about the still-murky origin of our Moon."



How a New Planetarium Show Helped Scientists Unlock a Cosmic Secret 

The Milky Way as seen from Bali. (AFP/Getty Images) 
The Milky Way as seen from Bali. (AFP/Getty Images) 
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How a New Planetarium Show Helped Scientists Unlock a Cosmic Secret 

The Milky Way as seen from Bali. (AFP/Getty Images) 
The Milky Way as seen from Bali. (AFP/Getty Images) 

Scientists have unlocked one of the solar system's many secrets from an unexpected source: a planetarium show opening to the public on Monday.

At the American Museum of Natural History last fall, experts were hard at work preparing "Encounters in the Milky Way," a deep dive into our home galaxy shaped by the movements of stars and other celestial objects.

They were fine-tuning a scene featuring what's known as the Oort Cloud, a region far beyond Pluto filled with icy relics from the solar system's formation. Comets can hurtle toward Earth from the cloud, but scientists have never glimpsed its true shape.

One evening while watching the Oort Cloud scene, scientists noticed something strange projected onto the planetarium's dome.

"Why is there a spiral there?" said the museum's Jackie Faherty.

The inner section of the Oort Cloud, made of billions of comets, resembled a bar with two waving arms, similar to the shape of our Milky Way galaxy.

Scientists had long thought the Oort Cloud was shaped like a sphere or flattened shell, warped by the push and pull of other planets and the Milky Way itself. The planetarium show hinted that a more complex shape could lie inside.

The museum contacted the researcher who provided the Oort Cloud data for the show, who was also surprised to see the spiral.

"It's kind of a freak accident that it actually happened," said David Nesvorny with the Southwest Research Institute.

Realizing they'd stumbled on something new, the researchers published their findings earlier this year in The Astrophysical Journal.

The spiral is "a striking shift in our understanding of the outer solar system," planetary scientist Andre Izidoro with Rice University, who was not involved with the study, said in an email.

The discovery, relying on data on how celestial objects move and using simulations, will be difficult to confirm with observations. But knowing more about the orbits of distant comets could give scientists some clues, Izidoro said.

While putting together the planetarium show, the museum's experts weren't expecting a window into the universe's inner workings. The show, narrated by actor Pedro Pascal, features many vivid scenes that may capture audiences more than the Oort Cloud, said the museum's Jon Parker, including an ongoing merge of the Sagittarius mini galaxy with the Milky Way.

No matter how striking and beautiful the visuals of the show, the museum was committed to making it scientifically accurate. That's what created the perfect conditions to stumble upon something new, said the museum's Carter Emmart.

"You just never know what you're going to find," Emmart said.