Chang'e 5

Chang'e 5 (Chinese: 嫦娥五号; pinyin: Cháng'é wǔhào) is a robotic Chinese lunar exploration mission currently under development, forecast for a Moon landing in 2019 after being postponed due to the failure of the Long March 5 launch vehicle in 2017.^[1] Chang'e 5 will be China's first sample return mission, aiming to return at least 2 kilograms of lunar soil and rock samples back to the Earth. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e. This will be the first Lunar sample-return mission since Luna 24 in 1976.

Mission profile

The probe was planned for launch by the Long March 5 rocket at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, but the failure of this vehicle in 2017 created uncertainty about its ability to carry Chang'e 5.^[1] Targeted to the northwest region of the Moon, the specific region intended for sampling is Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum.^[2] After making a soft landing, the lander will dig 2 metres (6.6 ft) below the surface for a lunar sample from basalt estimated to be 1.3 billion years old, younger than the 3–4 billion year old samples obtained by the American Apollo missions.^[2]

Unlike earlier Soviet missions, the mission will make an automatic rendezvous and docking with the return module in lunar orbit before flying back to the Earth.^[3]

Lander payload

The lander will carry landing cameras, optical cameras, a mineral spectrometer, a soil gas analytical instrument, a soil composition analytical instrument, and a sampling sectional thermodetector. For acquiring samples, it will be equipped with a robotic arm, rotary-percussive drill, a scoop for sampling, and separation tubes to isolate individual samples.^[3]

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