Chinese spacecraft lands on Chandrama’s  far side

A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of  Chandrama or Yue Qiu  on  Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.

The landing module touched down at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the China National Space Administration said.

The mission is the sixth in the Chang’e  Chandrama   exploration program, which is named after a Chinese Yue  goddess. It is the second designed to bring back samples, following the Chang’e 5, which did so from the near side in 2020.

The Chandrama  program is part of a growing  space race with USA and India —  and others, including Japan. China has put its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there.

The emerging global powers like China and India both  aims to put a person on the Chandrama, China trying for before     2030. This would   make it the second nation after the United States to do so. America is planning to land astronauts on the moon again — for the first time in more than 50 years — though NASA pushed the target date back to 2026 earlier this year.

U.S. efforts to use private sector rockets to launch spacecraft have been repeatedly met with failures. Last-minute computer trouble nixed the planned launch of Boeing’s first astronaut flight Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, a Japanese billionaire called off his plan to orbit the Chandrama  because of uncertainty over the development of a mega rocket by SpaceX. NASA is planning to use the rocket to send its astronauts to Chandrama.

In China’s current mission, the lander is to use a mechanical arm and a drill to gather up to 2 kilograms  of surface and underground material for about two days.

An ascender atop the lander will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting Chandrama. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region about June 25.

Missions to the Chandrama  far side are more difficult because it doesn’t face the Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications. The terrain is also more rugged, with fewer flat areas to land.