The part of China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft that remains in orbit has left for a new task after finishing its primary mission: exploring an odd region of space known as the Lagrangian point.
On December 16, the capsule containing samples from the lunar surface was dropped off. Hence, the orbiter spacecraft completed the final task of its primary mission. The capsule descended to Earth, and Chinese scientists retrieved it for study in Inner Mongolia.
However, the orbiter didn't conclude its mission yet. On Sunday, Hu Hao, the chief author of Chang'e-5 mission's sample return-process told China Central Television (CCTV) that the orbiter did an orbital correction to avoid crashing into Earth's atmosphere. It's now starting a new mission to one of the Sun-Earth Lagrangian points.
What will Chang'e-5 do in the Lagrangian point?
There are five locations in a structure where the gravitational force of the two particles is identical, enabling all objects to remain there with negligible interference from the other two. With China putting the Queqiao communications satellite at the Earth-moon L2 Lagrangian stage, they have proven to be useful for science. It provided a connection to missions on the far side of the moon, such as the 2019 Chang'e-4 launch.
Though Hu refused to provide details on the Lagrangian point, amateur cosmologists have proposed that Chang'e-5 is likely to be headed to the L1 region. It's the part directly found between the Earth and the sun, based on its recent trajectory.
The point of L1 is approximately four times more far from the Planet than the orbit of the moon, which has an unimpeded vision of the sun. According to NASA, astronomers have placed solar observatory satellites there over the years, including ACE, DSCOVR, SOHO, and WIND.
Astrogator Mike has studied the current TLEs from Bill Gray and refined with Doppler analysis and his conclusion is #Change5 orbiter is heading back to the Moon for another close encounter 2 revs from now. Looks like they're planning to send it into a solar orbit.... https://t.co/vG6wKmf0Bx
— Scott Tilley 🇺🇦 (@coastal8049) December 18, 2020
Hu stated that there is already enough propellant fuel remaining on the Chang'e-5 orbiter, indicating it would be able to continue maneuvering for some time.
Unusual mission not the first time.
This is not the first Chinese project to pursue this trend, SpaceNews noted. In 2010, the Chang'e-2 spacecraft orbited and mapped the moon and visited the Earth-sun L2 point. It then evaluated ground command capability to monitor and guide the spacecraft. L2 is at the same position that L1 is situated "behind" Earth.
NASA, the US space agency, is now planning a flight to one of the Lagrangian points of Jupiter. Planets appear to collect 'Trojan' asteroids and other space debris at the L3 and L4 stages, which circle the sun in front of and behind it. The LUCY spacecraft will transit eight of Jupiter's Trojans over a 12-year cycle, scheduled to launch sometime in late 2021. The asteroids are thought to be captured members in the Kuiper Belt, originating outside Neptune's orbit from the distant region of the solar system.
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