Hrvatski
Tuesday June 25. witnessed return of the China’s Chang’e 6 robotic mission bringing samples of soil from the moon’s the South Pole–Aitken basin which is located on the side of Moon not visible from Earth. The Basin is an immense crater, roughly 2,500 km in diameter and between 6.2 and 8.2 km deep, perhaps the largest known crater in the Solar System. The estimate is that it was formed 4.2 to 4.3 billion years ago. This feature makes it of great scientific importance for understanding origin of Moon and for future Lunar missions.
The total voyage lasted 53 days that included deploying Lunar orbiter and Pakistani CubeSat, complex manoeuvres to coordinate incoming orbit with the landing one, communication with Earth which is not direct but with the relaying satellite in Lagrange point 2. Drilling and collecting soil, launching into the Lunar orbit, join the orbiter for the re-entry on to Earth. Re-entry was unique, coming at 11.2 km per second entering atmosphere would be difficult to prevent burning space craft. Slowing the speed was achieved by entering atmosphere at an angle to bounce off, like hopping pebbles on water. Once slowed entering atmosphere is at the slower speed and lending is within the bounds that the space craft can withstand the heating. The manoeuvre commenced at 5000 kilometres when the capsule with the sample separated from the lunar orbiter.
The project is one step towards the grand project putting humans on Moon, the International Lunar Research Station, in which Adriatic Aerospace Association is also participant.