China is reportedly planning to launch an unmanned spacecraft to bring back lunar rocks. The mission will the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from the moon in four decades.
The mission is set to take off from the Wenchang Space Center in the southern island province of Hainan, according to official Xinhua news agency.
The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, aims to shovel up lunar rocks and soil to help scientists learn about the moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
If successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Chinese probe will collect two kilograms of surface material in a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum or Ocean of Storms — which consist of a vast lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.
If successfully launched, the probe is expected to land on the moon in late November and collect material during one lunar day — equivalent to around 14 Earth days.
The samples will be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed to land in Inner Mongolia in early December, according to US space agency NASA.
