China announced Today, its plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week according to Reuters. The spacecraft named ‘5 probe’ will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation.
On other hand, the China’s probe, scheduled to get launched in coming days, will attempt to collect 2 kg (4 1/2 pounds) of samples in a previously unvisited area in a massive lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of S”.
Earlier in the Apollo program, which first put men on the moon, the United States landed 12 astronauts over six flights from 1969 to 1972, bringing back 382 kg (842 pounds) of rocks and soil.
James Head, Planetary scientist at Brown University explained: “The Apollo-Luna sample zone of the moon, critical to our understanding, was undertaken in an area that comprises far less than half the lunar surface.”
China to Release Moon Probe
Head added: ”Subsequent data from orbital remote sensing missions have shown a wider diversity of rock types, mineralogies and ages than represented in the Apollo-Luna sample collections.”
If the mission goes successful, it will make China the 3rd country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the Soviet Union decades ago.
