Chinese probe Chang’e 6 brought back almost 2 kilos of samples from the dark side of the Moon

China announced this Friday the amount of material it managed to bring back from the far side of the Moon with the mission Chang’e-6, accounting for a total of 1,935.3 grams of samples.

The announcement was made by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which confirmed that the samples, the first to return to Earth from the hidden side of the Earth’s satellite,were already handed over to research teams in a ceremony held in Beijing.

“We have noticed that the samples brought back by Chang’e 6 They are more viscous compared to the previous ones, with the presence of lumps. These are the characteristics so far observable,” said Ge Ping, deputy director of the CNSA Lunar Exploration and Engineering Center and spokesperson for the mission in statements reported by the state agency Xinhua.

The samples, which include rocks and regolith, They were carefully extracted from the Aitken crater at the South Pole,one of the largest and oldest on the Moon.

The capsule containing the satellite samples successfully landed in the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia on June 25.

After a meticulous recovery process and transfer to Beijing, the samples were handed over to selected Chinese research teams to begin their analysis and studies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping extended his congratulations on Tuesday for the “complete success of the mission” and highlighted “China’s effort to become a space and technological power”.

“Over the last twenty years, everyone involved in the lunar exploration project has scaled the heights of science and technology, achieving outstanding advances that have captured global attention,” declared the Chinese president.

China, the only country that has so far landed on the far side of the Moon,will dedicate the next two Chang’e missions to the exploration of the satellite’s south pole,where it plans to build a scientific exploration base together with Russia and other countries.

The Chang’e 7 mission is scheduled to reach the lunar south pole in 2026, where you will look for water ice deposits,while Chang’e 8 will explore in 2028 possible uses of the resources that its predecessor discovers and will lay the foundations for manned exploration, which the Chinese space program hopes to materialize around 2030.

China also announced new projects for its space program on Thursday, with plans to explore Mars and Jupiter in the coming decades.

Beijing has invested heavily in its space program in recent years, with various exploration missions, or the creation of its own space station, Tiangong, which will operate for about ten years.

Starting in 2024, the Chinese platform will become the only space station in the world if the International Space Station, an initiative led by the United States and to which China is prohibited from accessing due to the military ties of its space program, withdraws this year as planned.