Is this another game-changing achievement? China's Yutu-2 has sent back new data, and it has found that it is different from what scientists imagined, which is a bit interesting, is China's Yutu-2 going to create the history of lunar exploration?
This does surprise many people, many of the achievements of China's exploration of the moon seem to be the first time, and the results of human exploration of the moon at this stage are a little inconsistent, what is going on?
Let's take a look, what Yutu-2 found different this time, and there are still differences with what scientists think, if you look at it, you may think of the problem of the mainland's Chang'e-6 exploration, because they are all on the far side of the moon, first of all, let's introduce this Yutu-2.
The world's longest working lunar rover - Yutu-2
In 2019, the Yutu-2 lunar rover completed the separation from the Chang'e-4 lander and arrived on the far side of the moon, which was the first time that China landed on the far side of the moon and became another milestone in the development of China's aerospace industry.
Of course, for the far side of the moon, only China has completed this layout, and only Chinese probes on the far side of the moon, including the Chang'e-6 probe, which will make history on the mainland in 2024, is also in the far side of the moon, Chang'e-6 has achieved the first human sampling on the far side of the moon.
Although humans conducted 10 lunar sampling processes before Chang'e-6, they were all on the far side of the moon, including the Chang'e-5 mission on the mainland.
Therefore, on the whole, the far side of the moon is also the continent at this stage is constantly creating history, and Yutu-2 is not only the first lunar rover on the far side of the moon in the mainland, but also the first in the world.
However, since entering the far side of the moon, the actual data has been determined, and it has walked 1,613 meters, which is the longest working time of the lunar rover on the moon in the world, with a cumulative working time of nearly 5 years and 9 months, far exceeding the design life of three months.
During the 71-month work period, "Yutu-2" not only obtained geological information such as lunar surface morphology, shallow structure, and material composition in the Chang'e-4 landing area, but also provided scientific data of great value for scientific issues such as the geological evolution of the far side of the moon and even the early evolution history of the lunar crust.
Using the lunar radar on board the Chang'e-4 Yutu-2 lunar rover, the mainland research team revealed for the first time the geological stratification structure at a depth of 40 meters below the landing area on the far side of the moon, and found that the underground material is composed of low-loss lunar soil material and a large number of rocks of different sizes.
The Yutu-2 lunar rover set a world record for the longest work on the lunar surface, obtained the first geological profile map of the far side of the moon with a length of nearly 500 meters and a depth of 50 meters, as well as valuable data such as the mineral composition and space environment of the moon
For the first time, the Yutu-2 lunar rover found special remnants that did not belong to the moon in the lunar impact crater.
In addition, the Yutu-2 lunar rover found centimeter-diameter transparent glass balls on the far side of the moon, and this kind of glass beads was discovered for the first time in the world, which shows that the value of the mainland Yutu-2 is constantly presenting. And this time, the new discovery of Yutu-2 has once again subverted everyone's perception of the far side of the moon.
China's Yutu-2 new discovery is different from what scientists imagined
That's right, the results of this exploration are indeed a little different, and they can also be regarded as subversive explorations.
According to the spectral data transmitted by the Yutu-2 lunar rover, in the landing area of Chang'e-4, a completely different situation was found than scientists initially guessed and imagined, that is, the area where Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2 are located.
Originally thought to be basalt, it is one of the main rocks that make up the moon, formed by the outer layer of the moon at a depth of about 200 kilometers, crystallized on the surface of the moon (about 1050 °C) after multiple eruptions (at least 5 times), and is also the youngest rock on the moon, formed 33~3.7 billion years ago, almost equivalent to the oldest known rock on the earth.
It was also found in the lunar samples brought back by the continental Chang'e-5 spacecraft, and its basalt formation age is 2.030±004 million years, which means that the "youngest" basalt on the moon was formed 2 billion years ago, driving the evolution history of the moon.
And this time Yutu-2 found the so-called basalt, which is different from what scientists imagined, it is the surface of the moon covered with a kind of plagioclase type of deep lunar material, and may even represent the lunar mantle material, which is interesting, in fact, there is also a confirmation of one thing here, that is, there was a previous description of the Chang'e-6 lunar sample, there may be lunar mantle material, if the mainland's Yutu-2 discovered the possibility of the existence of the lunar mantle, it means that in the lunar samples of Chang'e-6, There is also a greater probability of the presence of lunar mantle material, which will inevitably promote the value of the lunar soil of Chang'e-6 on the mainland once again.
Of course, judging from the results of the first paper released by Chang'e-6 on the mainland, there are no direct questions about the lunar mantle, mainly because of the material composition, but the plagioclase problem is explained, which can be regarded as a side confirmation of the similarity with the results of the Yutu-2 mission.
During the research process, the mainland research team found that the density of Chang'e-6 lunar samples is low, indicating that its structure is relatively loose and its porosity is high. The particle size of the sample exhibits a bimodal distribution, suggesting that the sample may have undergone a mixing of different sources.
Compared with the Chang'e-5 lunar sample, the plagioclase content in the Chang'e-6 lunar sample increased significantly, while the olivine content decreased significantly, indicating that the lunar soil in this region was obviously affected by non-basaltic materials.
The rock chips collected are mainly composed of basalt, breccia, cohesive, light-colored rocks and vitreous materials.
Basalt fragments account for 30 to 40 percent of the total, and breccia and cohesive rocks are composed of basalt chips, glass beads, glass fragments, and small amounts of light-colored rock detrital materials such as plagioclase and monzonite, further revealing the complexity of the sample sources.
Mineralogical analysis showed that the main phase compositions of the Chang'e-6 lunar samples were plagioclase (32.6%), pyroxene (33.3%) and glass (29.4%).
In addition, small amounts of orthorhombic pyroxene were detected in the samples, suggesting the presence of non-basaltic material, and further analysis showed that the Chang'e-6 lunar samples contained high levels of aluminum oxides and calcium oxides, while relatively low levels of iron oxides, consistent with the characteristics of a mixture of lunar sea basalts and plagioclases.
Second, the content of trace elements such as thorium, uranium and potassium in the samples is significantly lower than that of the Kripple basalt, which is very different from the lunar samples obtained by the Apollo and Chang'e-5 missions.
Therefore, there is indeed a big difference between the far side of the moon and the front side of the moon, and the preliminary analysis of the discovery of Yutu-2 and the Chang'e-6 lunar soil may also form a mutual "echo" in the follow-up, confirming the results of Chang'e-6 lunar soil.
I have to say that the mainland's exploration of the moon in recent years has really given too obvious results, human beings have changed their different understandings of the moon in just a few years, and many of the first results have appeared in front of everyone, which are completely undiscovered by human beings in the previous era.
This may be why many people are very concerned about China's lunar exploration, and also look forward to the mainland's lunar exploration data, including the demand for lunar soil.
United States wants China to share lunar soil
Indeed, don't look at the United States through the Apollo program to collect more than 300 kilograms of lunar soil back to Earth, but many lunar research results are not comparable with the mainland Chang'e 5, or even the Chang'e 6 results that may appear in the future.
For example, the results of Chang'e-5 have been determined, such as the discovery of molecular water for the first time in lunar soil, the discovery of blue chalcocite minerals (Cu1.8S) with evaporative sedimentary characteristics for the first time, and the discovery of natural graphene for the first time, all of which illustrate the uniqueness of China's Chang'e-5. Therefore, it is completely normal for the United States to want China's Chang'e lunar soil, because these first achievements are all excavated by China.
The Chang'e-6 lunar soil is even more special, United States wants, and it makes more sense, this is the world's first sample of the far side of the moon, but for the matter of lunar soil, the mainland has also publicly stated that due to the Wolf conditions between China and the United States, although China said that it is willing to share its lunar samples with the world, but the United States does not meet China's requirements, and only by clearing the obstacles can it be possible to cooperate with each other.
Indeed, under normal circumstances, the United States once gave China 1 gram of lunar samples, and theoretically speaking, if it were not for the existence of the Wolf clause, the mainland would really be able to send a little, but with the existence of this clause, there would be no chance. It is completely unlikely that the United States wants to get the Chinese lunar soil by not repealing the clause.
This also reminds many people of what United States NASA said before, to get Chinese lunar soil without breaking the law, this possibility is actually not very likely.
Because the lunar soil is in the hands of the mainland, how can the United States take it? Unless the continent is assigned to countries that cooperate in lunar exploration, and then the United States cooperates with other countries in research, it is not possible.
It's just that I don't know much about the mainland's rules for sharing lunar samples, whether there are countries that can share with it, and allow other countries to cooperate in research again, but under normal circumstances, it should also have its own rules, which is not much to say.
But one thing is certain, that is, the existence of the Wolf clause will definitely not be taken from China, and this is the general situation.
Therefore, in the future, China will make more breakthroughs in lunar exploration, after all, in addition to these exploration plans, the mainland also has a lunar scientific research station plan, lunar habitat construction and other issues, which will promote the continent's exploration of the moon to a new height, and these exploration results will also provide favorable support when the mainland mines lunar resources in the future.
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