Chang'e-6 lunar mission

[Steven Pietrobon]

Thinking about it, the mass of lunar samples has just gone from Apollo & Luna combined 382 kg, to 384 kg.

The total Soviet and Chinese Luna sample return mass is about 4 kg, so that would be 386 kg total.

Luna 16   0.101 kg
Luna 20   0.055 kg
Luna 24   0.170 kg
Chang'e 5 1.731 kg
Chang'e 6 1.935 kg
------------------
Total     3.992 kg

[Galactic Penguin SST]

https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1806871243733557468

(the name means "Golden Toad")

https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1806870751385141461

https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1806756541141496053

[luhai167]

https://x.com/SegerYU/status/1806279693983007205

This tweet includes a link to a very interesting summary of the sampling process.  The drill only reached about 1 m deep again.

IT's all Chinese to me....

Basically both CE 5 and CE 6 is capable of drill to 2.5 meters and plan to drill to 2 meter.s yet in both they stopped at ~1 meter due to hitting hard material and the scientist decided not to risk it. In CE 5, resistance reached ~300 newton and they decided to probe a bit further, and once it it reached 500 Newtown, they decided to stop.

[starbase]

Chang'e 6 orbiter seems to move on to L2

https://twitter.com/mickeywzx/status/1806729795688136831

[edzieba]

https://x.com/SegerYU/status/1806279693983007205

This tweet includes a link to a very interesting summary of the sampling process.  The drill only reached about 1 m deep again.

IT's all Chinese to me....

Basically both CE 5 and CE 6 is capable of drill to 2.5 meters and plan to drill to 2 meter.s yet in both they stopped at ~1 meter due to hitting hard material and the scientist decided not to risk it. In CE 5, resistance reached ~300 newton and they decided to probe a bit further, and once it it reached 500 Newtown, they decided to stop.

I'll add that the encapsulation and retrieval system (a really neat self-inverting double-liner setup within the drill core) means the sampling system is one-shot. They can't grab a 1m deep sample and then try drilling deeper, the further core sample would not be retrievable anyway, and may jam inside the drill shaft in the absence of the liner (drill head ID < bore ID without liner). Running the drill with too much feed force also risks jacking up the lander by the drill shaft, which is also not desirable - being off-level affects the gravity-based sample handoff mechanisms, as well as return capsule launch angle.

[Dalhousie]

More on the min-rover carried by Chang'e 6

https://www.space.com/china-change-6-moon-far-side-minirover

[Phil Stooke]

Chang'e 6 was launched with a small satellite from Pakistan.  We saw a few early, distant images of the Moon from icube-Q, but has anyone seen anything else about it?  I have seen no indication that it survived past that initial imaging sequence and transmission. I hope it did and some more images will be released, but so far nothing.

[Dalhousie]

Chang'e 6 was launched with a small satellite from Pakistan.  We saw a few early, distant images of the Moon from icube-Q, but has anyone seen anything else about it?  I have seen no indication that it survived past that initial imaging sequence and transmission. I hope it did and some more images will be released, but so far nothing.

Wasn't it a cubesat, with only a few days life?

[Phil Stooke]

It was small but apparently not really a cubesat format.  It was supposed to have a longer life and take better images than those released apolune images.  But no word yet.

This site

https://www.ist.edu.pk/icube-q

says it had a design life of 3 months, and it had solar panels, not just a battery.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1815273619020235124

[Video] Close-up look at Chang’e-6 Mini rover for pictures. Full HD:

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/wulei2020/status/1837321788398915596

The Chinese engineering team that spent over a decade perfecting the Chang'e-6 probe say the pieces of moon it collected are “a gift to the world.” 🎁
Learn how this feat was achieved in the clip taken from “Back to the Far Side.”
#backtothefarside  #ChineseLunarExploration

[catdlr]

First study of Chang’e-6 samples from the far side of the Moon

ep 22, 2024
The first study of the samples collected by the Chang’e-6 lunar mission (嫦娥六号) from the Apollo crater, located in the South Pole-Aitkin impact basin, on the far side of the Moon, was published on 16 September 2024 in the journal National Science Review.
Credit:
Nature of the lunar farside samples returned by the Chang’e-6 mission
Chunlai Li, Hao Hu, Meng-Fei Yang, Jianjun Liu, Qin Zhou, Xin Ren, Bin Liu, Dawei Liu,   Xingguo Zeng, Wei Zuo, Guangliang Zhang, Hongbo Zhang, Saihong Yang, Qiong Wang,   Xiangjin Deng, Xingye Gao, Yan Su, Weibin Wen, Ziyuan Ouyang
National Science Review, DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwae328
China Central Television (CCTV)

[Blackstar]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/documentary-video-details-china-far-side-sample-mission/

[eeergo]

A slice of the lunar far side was showcased in CNSA's IAC 2024 booth in Milan this year, and a presentation was held to showcase it (although not so many details were shared)

[Blackstar]

They have a model on display at the IAC. It looks great. (Not my photo, I grabbed it off Twitter.)

[TheKutKu]

Chang'e 6 return capsule (the real one)
325kg, 1.26m diameter; 1.24m tall

[Phil Stooke]

Chang'e 6 was launched with a small satellite from Pakistan.  We saw a few early, distant images of the Moon from icube-Q, but has anyone seen anything else about it?  I have seen no indication that it survived past that initial imaging sequence and transmission. I hope it did and some more images will be released, but so far nothing.

An update: This website:

https://www.ist.edu.pk/icube-q

includes two 'monthly mission reports' in JPG format. The first is from 30 days after orbit insertion (8 June, though it is not dated), the second explicitly up to 8 July, 60 days after LOI.

Important points: the mission is said to have ended on July 1st. 17 images are said to have been transmitted (all in the first 30 days, no change in the second report). The first report mentions 85 MB downloaded, the second 130 MB. Only 2 small high altitude images have been released as far as I can tell.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1872943381157990485

The video of the unfolding process of the solar wing taken by the Chang'e 6 monitoring camera. Full HD:

[Phil Stooke]

https://m.weibo.cn/status/P6W3t2WGG

This link goes to a Weibo post with an image from the Chang'e 6 mobile camera which I have not seen before (plus a rendered view and an image of it on the lander).

Also learned from other posts: the rover did not survive long enough to view the ascender vehicle take-off.

[FutureSpaceTourist]