A tricky docking stunt with a robot orbiting the lunar surface on Sunday was completed by China's Chang'e 5 unmanned probe, moving a step closer in its attempt to bring back rock samples from the moon for the first time in more than 40 years.
According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in Beijing, the probe, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess, lifted off the lunar surface on Thursday and connected with the orbiting spacecraft at 5:42 am local time Sunday.
Phys.org reported that the Chang'e lander cargo capsule, named after a legendary Chinese moon goddess, docked at with a remote-controlled spacecraft orbiting the moon.
After 30 minutes, a container with 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks transferred to the orbiter.
The container containing the samples was lifted into the orbiter by a robot arm. On its return journey to Earth, the orbiter will detach from the probe and leave lunar orbit.
"From the point of view of the samples, the main difference from the previous samples obtained by the United States and the Soviet Union is the difference in the landing area," Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the CNSA's Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Centre, told state broadcaster CCTV on Friday.
"The material composition and stratum structure of different sampling points may be different so by studying these samples, we can reconstruct the formation process of this area, and the scientific understanding of the cause and evolution of the moon," Pei said.
The CNSA did not report the samples' weight.
But Pei was quoted by the state news agency Xinhua on Sunday as saying that China had chosen a challenging approach to bring more specimens and make a foundation for manned lunar missions, such as using an autonomous vehicle and docking in lunar orbit.
In the middle of this month, the Chang'e 5 spacecraft is scheduled to land in Inner Mongolia's snow-covered grasslands in northern China.
Mysteries of the Moon
Scientists hope that the Chang'e-5 tests will help them gain a deeper understanding and volcanic activity of the Moon on its soil.
The Chang'e-5 had launched from the Wenchang Spaceport on Hainan Island on November 24. On Tuesday, the lander arrived at the moon and began scooping up rock samples a day later, before blasting off from the lunar surface.
The moon's takeoff was another first for China, the first liftoff of an extraterrestrial body from a Chinese craft.
Several increasingly ambitious space missions have been launched by China, such as a probe en route to Mars and a reusable spaceplane construction.
China eyes creating its own space station by 2022 and send an exploration mission to Jupiter by 2029.
After the US Apollo program carried 382kg (840 pounds) of lunar rocks and soil back to Earth over six moon landing flights, China is the third country to gather samples from space. Meanwhile, the former Soviet Union obtained a little over 300 grams of lunar samples from three journeys.
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