A Chinese spacecraft carrying samples from the far side of the moon will return to Earth on Tuesday, completing a technically complex 53-day mission that is being described as a world first.
Beijing has not revealed the spacecraft’s estimated arrival time, but experts say it will likely land in the desert in the northern Inner Mongolia region around noon (0400 GMT).
It is bringing soil and rocks from the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, an area that scientists say has huge research potential because its rugged features are less flat than the near side, caused by ancient lava flows.
This means that material obtained from there can help us understand how the Moon formed and how it evolved over time.
Chang’e-6 launched from a space center on the island province of Hainan on May 3 and landed in the moon’s vast South Pole-Aitken basin about a month later.
It used a drill and robotic arm to collect samples, took some photos of the perforated surface and planted a Chinese flag in the brown soil.
On June 4, the spacecraft made its first successful launch from the remote region, which China’s state-run news agency Xinhua called “an unprecedented achievement in the history of human lunar exploration.”
Since then, officials have been reluctant to provide updates on the progress of the investigation.
But China’s space agency said in a social media post on Friday that it was “70 percent” of the way back to Earth.
– ‘Space Dream’ –
Plans for China’s “space dream” have moved forward rapidly under President Xi Jinping.
Beijing has pumped massive resources into its space programme over the past decade, aiming for ambitious ventures to catch up with traditional space powers the United States and Russia.
It has built a space station, landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and become the third country to send astronauts into orbit.
But the United States has warned that China’s space programme hides military objectives and an attempt to establish dominance in space.
China aims to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to eventually build a base on the lunar surface.
The United States plans to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2026 through its Artemis 3 mission.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)