Robot drills hole on Moon, employs robot arm to clean up mess to bring home
- Reference: 1606975026
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/12/03/change_5_drill_success/
- Source link:
After [1]landing successfully on Tuesday, the probe spent a day or so preparing to drill into the satellite in order to unsettle enough Moon-stuff to offer terrestrial scientists useful insights into Luna’s composition.
Late on Wednesday night Chang’e unleashed its drill, as depicted by Chinese state media.
China's Chang'e-5 probe has completed sampling on the moon, and the samples have been sealed within the spacecraft, China National Space Administration announced Thursday morning. [2]pic.twitter.com/L7db2HRpXc — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) [3]December 3, 2020
China’s Lunar Exploration Program [4]says the probe survived 100-degree Celsius temperatures, decided that it really digs the Moon and filled its sample chambers with regolith.
“The lunar soil structure detector and other payloads configured by the lander are working normally, and scientific detection is carried out as planned, and sampling information support is provided,” says the Program’s machine-translated announcement.
[5]
Chang'e 5 on the moon. Image: CNSA and CLEP. Click to enlarge
To scoop the dirt, the probe used its drill and an arm that plucked other material from other locations. The resulting rubble was stowed in a capsule that was sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
China’s mission timeline plans for Chang’e 5 to spend about two weeks on Luna observing its surrounds before heading home and landing its sample return capsule on December 17th. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/01/change_5_lands/
[2] https://t.co/L7db2HRpXc
[3] https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1334309342888116225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] http://www.clep.org.cn/n5982341/c6810710/content.html
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/12/03/clep_change_5_on_moon.jpg
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
Moon dust swaps hands for a small fortune. How much is moon vacuum worth?
How much vacuum are they bringing back?
Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
I have a few jars of Lunar vacuum for sale at €20K each, if you open one however, the guarantee on content and quality will be null and void.
Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
However under controlled lab conditions a container of Lunar vacuum can be opened and used to fill containers containing only boring earth vacuum. Pretty much endlessly!
Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
Thinking about it, although semantically all vacuums ought to be equal, in practice they are not. But it's a very odd way to say what they did, which is simply to get a good enough seal to prevent comtamination.
Re: sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
I guess it was sealed on the moon and will come back like that. I wonder if it will make the same popping sound that vacuum tubes make when you throw them on a hard surface.
Star Trek?
Just what is it with these space agencies - that emblem at the top right of the image looks like Star Trek was the inspiration.
Re: Star Trek?
And the Geek shall inherit the Earth (or at least take over the space agencies of said Earth in the hope that they can at least inherit Mars, or maybe the Moon... at least for a while...)
-- from the forgotten books of the Dead Sea Tablets (the less famous cousins of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as in the end, everyone decided that Tablets were so last year and this new fangled ink and paper stuff was really the way of the future.
(or perhaps not...)
Impressed
Not with the mission, that goes without saying but with the Reg editor who somehow managed to resist using "Chinese Takeaway" as the strapline.
Is that it?
I was 12 months old when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. I have it on good authority that I was woken to watch.
In terms of manned exploration we've barely advanced in over 50 years. My parents would have expected me to be holidaying on Mars by now.
sealed so tight it includes Lunar vacuum.
Now that's an interesting turn of phrase... I know what they meant but I'm having difficulty visualising including nothing...
The slight change in orbital distance of the moon is probably caused by Robert Heinlein spinning in his grave.