The Chinese returned the first samples from the far side of the moon

First Soil Samples from the Far Side of the Moon: Can Chang’e 6 Confirm the Apollo-Experiment Origin Story?

The first soil samples ever taken from the far side of the Moon arrived on Earth today. China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft landed with the precious cargo in Inner Mongolia today at 2:07PM Beijing time, according to state media.

Earlier this month it used a drill and scoop to collect samples from a lava flow in an area known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Carlson, who is an emeritus researcher at Carnegie Science in Washington DC, says these new samples should confirm the Apollo-era origin story — that the entire moon was forged quickly around 4.5 billion years ago.

The theory is widely accepted today, but the evidence remains somewhat limited. The moon is the one that always faces the earth, because the Apollo missions landed on the near side.

On the far side of the moon, there is a robotic probe called Chang’e 6. That’s a much more challenging task because the far side faces away from our planet and there’s no direct way to communicate. Instead, Chang’e 6 relied on a satellite orbiting the moon to relay its signal.

If the Chang’e 6 sample “gives the same age as the stuff from Apollo… then the likelihood is that you’re really looking at a global event,” he says. If not, the textbooks will have to be revised again.

The Moon’s Far Side Is Not Just As Filled With Lava-Flooding Areas – A Challenge for Planetary Science

Jim Head, a planetary scientist at Brown University, says that the far side of the moon has many other mysteries as well. He claims that the far side is not filled with lava-flooded areas known as maria.

“It’s pretty clear that the far side and the near side have many, many differences,” Head says. “It’s a really critical issue. You can’t understand the origin of a planet with one hemisphere.

The United States and China are in a rivalry that includes over the moon. The nations want to send people back to the moon around the end of the decade.

NASA is allowing scientists from the U.S. to submit proposals and China has offered to share at least some of its new moon samples. Carlson is all for it.

The feat is expected to help scientists better understand the unfamiliar terrain of the Moon’s far side and perhaps shed some light on the early history of the Moon and Earth. It’s also a significant milestone in the escalating global space race to establish a presence on the Moon.

The Far Side of the Moon: Relics of the Late Heavy Bombardment, and a NASA Space Mission to the South Pole-Aitken Basin

President Xi Jinping congratulated the China National Space Administration, calling it a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts at becoming a space and technological power,” according to The Associated Press.

The impact crater of the South Pole–Aitken Basin is 4.26 billion years old. Compared to the smoother near side of the Moon, the far side is pockmarked with craters from ancient collisions. The history of the Moon depends on how the craters formed and what materials they hold.

“This also has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth,” the nonprofit The Planetary Society wrote in a post about Chang’e 6 earlier this year, citing a theory that asteroids might have carried water and organic materials to Earth during an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. Since that bombardment was so fierce, there was more scrutiny. Some questions could be answered using long-awaited samples from the far side of the Moon.

China is going to send a spaceship to the south pole of the moon in 2026 in order to look for water and other resources that may support a long-term mission on the Moon. NASA wants to send the first humans to the lunar south pole region in 2026 as part of its Artemis III mission.