Soil-seeking Mission To The Moon Blasts Off

China on Tuesday launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon in the first bid by any country to retrieve samples from the lunar surface since the 1970s, a mission that underscores Chinese ambitions in space.

The Long March-5, China's largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am from Wenchang Space Launch Centre on Hainan Island carrying the Chang'e-5 spacecraft.

The Chang'e-5 mission, named after the ancient goddess of the moon, will seek to collect lunar material to help scientists understand more about the moon's origins and formation. The mission will test China's ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

State broadcaster CCTV, which ran live coverage of the launch, showed images of China National Space Administration staff in blue uniforms applauding and cheering as they watched the spacecraft climbing through the atmosphere, lighting up the night sky.

If successful, the mission would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, joining the United States and the Soviet Union.

Upon entering the moon's orbit, the spacecraft is intended to deploy a pair of vehicles to the lunar surface: a lander and an ascender. The landing is due to take place in about eight days, according to Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for the mission. The probe is due to be on the lunar surface for about two days, while the entire mission is scheduled to take around 23 days.

The plan is for the lander to drill into the lunar surface, with a robotic arm scooping out soil and rocks. This material would be transferred to the ascender vehicle, which is due to carry it from the surface and then dock with an orbiting module.

The samples then would be transferred to a return capsule for the return trip to Earth, with a landing in China's Inner Mongolia region.

"The biggest challenges ... are the sampling work on the lunar surface, take-off from the lunar surface, rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit, as well as high-speed re-entry to Earth," said Pei, also director of the space administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.

"We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon- landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research - the method is more direct," Pei added. "Plus, there will be more instruments and more methods to study them on Earth."

China, which last year carried out the first landing on the far side of the moon and in July of this year launched a robotic probe to Mars, has other space goals in its sights. It aims to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.

"From next year, we will carry out the launch mission of our national space station," said Qu Yiguang, deputy commander of the Long March-5 carrier rocket.

Asked when China was planning to put astronauts on the moon, Pei said any decision would be based on scientific needs, as well as technical and economic conditions, adding: "I think future lunar exploration activities should be carried out by a combination of man and machine." (Reuters)