Lead
The latest development of the Chang'e-6 program with Chinese characteristics is the successful return of samples from the far side of the moon.
Therefore, the relevant news has naturally received the keen attention of the whole people, and the mainland government also attaches great importance to this news, believing that it marks an important progress in the mainland's space exploration.
"Since Chang'e-1, our lunar exploration program has undergone considerable development, which is a milestone achievement and a strong proof of our unswerving determination to build a space power and a scientific power," said a relevant person from the mainland.
In the future, on the basis of past lunar exploration, the mainland will continue to explore and move forward, including the establishment of a lunar research station and a manned mission to Mars.
The continent's ambitions in space exploration can be seen.
On the other hand, the US Government was also quite alarmed by this news, believing that the mainland was "increasing its deterrent power" through space activities, protested against the mainland, and even asserted that the mainland's goal might be "not peaceful."
But how much is this fear?
Chang'e-6 program.
So far, the mainland has carried out four consecutive lunar exploration missions, namely Chang'e-1 in 2007, Chang'e-2 in 2010, Chang'e-3 in 2013 and Chang'e-4 in 2019.
This is the first time in human history that this has been successfully achieved, and this is not an easy task.
But the mainland is not complacent, on the contrary, after Chang'e-5, we are engaged in the preparation process of Chang'e-6, so we sent Chang'e-6 to the moon in 2021.
Chang'e-6 is a translation of an ancient Chinese myth about a couple of jade rabbits living on the moon.
The mission of Chang'e-6 is to explore the distribution of water resources and gases in the lunar polar regions, as well as the observation and exploration of the moon's night sky, which is divided into three parts: the lunar orbiter, the reentry vehicle and the lander.
The lunar lander is mainly divided into two components, one of which is a sampling device, which is specially located in the lander's capsule and has an ejection device; The other is a lift, which is used to transport the sampling device to the ground, and then help the sampling device return to the capsule after the sampling task is completed.
The sampling process is divided into two steps, the first step is to land by the elevator first, which is used to identify the surrounding environment, find a suitable sampling site, and then determine the specific sampling plan according to the environmental conditions.
In the second step, when a suitable sampling site is found, the sampling device is transported to the ground by elevator to sample the soil of the moon.
Once this part is complete, it is possible to return to Earth with a sample of the moon for more in-depth research and analysis.
Therefore, the lander of Chang'e-6 is the key to the whole process, and when the lander completes the sampling work and is pushed back to the lunar orbiter, this critical step is completed.
The successful completion of this research mission by Chang'e-6 is an important progress of the mainland's lunar exploration program, and also indicates that the mainland's space research capability has reached the world's leading level.
Chang'e-6 will implement the plan after recovering samples.
When the lander returns to the lunar orbiter, Chang'e-6 is ready to return to Earth.
It is worth noting that due to the relative distance between the Earth and the Moon, Chang'e-6 will need to travel for several days on its way back to Earth.
When Chang'e-6 approaches Earth, the lunar orbiter needs to separate the return capsule containing lunar samples from itself, and the return capsule is responsible for sending the plants to the ground after they are brought into the atmosphere, and it is responsible for turning around and returning to the Earth and the Moon to fly to different places.
After the return capsule was allowed by the ground command center, it began to land in the northern part of the mainland, and then airlifted to Beijing, where it completed the journey from the moon to the earth, and after a series of inspections and analyses, the lunar samples were allowed to be studied more deeply.
According to a press release from the China National Space Administration, the Chang'e-6 probe has automated the entire process of carrying out this critical mission, and the samples collected from the moon have played an irreplaceable role for humans, who will conduct detailed analysis of the samples from the moon and try to further explore the local water resources, minerals and other information, and their research on lunar samples will also provide an important information base for the next step of continental space exploration.
At the same time, this is also an important progress in the global exploration of outer space, which will promote deeper exploration of outer space.
How justified is the "sense of crisis" of the United States about the continent's space exploration.
Although it is an automated lunar exploration mission, the mainland's space program is still questioned by the United States, which trumpets the results of space exploration that the United States has already achieved, with the intention of showing that the continent is not advanced in the world in terms of space exploration, saying that the mainland's space exploration is not peaceful, and even claiming that the mainland's purpose of increasing deterrence through space exploration will endanger all mankind.
Is this a misunderstanding or an ulterior motive?
My view is that it is clear that all countries in the world have an interest in participating in space activities, that it is the desire of all mankind to have an international space field, and that the continent's advantage in the field of space exploration is still very obvious.
Although the United States has relatively strong financial power, and manned space programs around the world are supported by the United States to a certain extent, the mainland is very strong in automated space exploration.
On the one hand, it is worried that the world will no longer dominate space and the cause of space exploration will no longer be the world of the United States, and on the other hand, it is worried that the essence of China's space exploration activities is to explore the possibility of using space resources, that is, what the United States is doing, and the United States will face the threat of China's space activities.
Of course, the United States also has several core technologies of its own, such as the Saturn launch vehicle, which is the world's first carrier with manned deep space exploration capabilities, and the spacecraft developed by American astronauts, which is also the first known spacecraft with manned deep space exploration capabilities.
The spacecraft can be said to be the most advanced manned deep-space spacecraft at present, and its flight performance is much higher than that of the spacecraft of the International Space Station, so that the United States also has the ability to conduct deep space exploration and sampling in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface.
Even in this respect, the United States is at the leading level in the world, and the mainland has similar advanced equipment and technology in the field of space exploration, and is a force that cannot be underestimated in the world.
Although the technical indicators of many space probes may not be as good as those of the United States, the mainland built a lunar probe from scratch and successfully achieved the first lunar soft landing mission in history, successfully operated a lunar exploration probe operated by multiple probes, and successfully achieved the sample collection mission from the moon back to Earth with only one Chang'e-5 mission, which is enough to prove that the strength of the continent's space exploration has reached the world's leading level.
More importantly, the latest progress of the mainland in the field of lunar exploration will further promote the progress of the continent's space exploration, enhance the continent's contribution in the field of space exploration, and promote the process of human exploration of outer space.
epilogue
As an ambitious power, the continent's space exploration activities have already aroused the attention or jealousy of all countries, and this revolutionary competition in the world is bound to have a far-reaching impact on the global scientific and technological progress and geopolitical pattern, and the continent will provide more possibilities and opportunities for mankind in the space exploration activities in the new era.
All in all, in the future, it will become a powerful force for mankind to explore outer space, and the development of "what China does" in the field of space scientific research is very promising.