This is a follow-up to 2020's Chang’e-5, which returned samples from the Earth-facing side of the Moon.
By Ryan Whitwam January 12, 2024
https://www.extremetech.com/science/chi ... f-the-moon
After decades of neglect, humanity is again shooting for the Moon—NASA hopes to return humans to the lunar surface in a few years, and numerous countries have ramped up efforts to land robotic explorers, with surprisingly limited success. China's Chang’e missions have been a bright spot, with Chang’e-5 bringing back the first samples of lunar soil in decades. Now, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) says the follow-up Chang’e-6 has arrived at the launch site for final testing before it heads off to collect samples from the far side of the Moon.
Chang’e-5 reached the lunar surface in 2020, an event that we might not have sufficiently appreciated at the time. In the intervening years, we've seen both public and private Moon landers crash into Earth's satellite, including Russia's Luna-25 and the US Peregrine lander from Astrobotic. Chang’e-5 successfully collected 1.7 kilograms of dust from the Moon and sent it back to Earth. Chang’e-6 will perform a similar operation on the far side of the Moon (above), which has only been visited a handful of times and from which we have no samples.