Chang'e 5: lunar sample return after 44 years
Chang'e 5: retorno de muestras lunares tras 44 años
- Date
- 16-17 de diciembre de 2020 · confidence high
- Place
- Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan, China
- Credited to
- China National Space Administration (CNSA) and China Academy of Space Technology
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
The mission took 1,731 g of soil from Oceanus Procellarum with a drill and scoop and returned it to Earth. It was the first lunar sample return since Luna 24 (1976); its basalts are about 2 billion years old.
The lander touched down near Mons Rümker. A date of about 2.03 billion years was published in Nature in 2021.
What it led to
- evidence that lunar volcanism lasted a billion years longer than expected
- calibration of crater-count dating
- Chang'e 6 and the Moon's far side