The First Soil Sample from the Far Side of the Moon From China: Confirming the Apollo-Epoch Origin Story with New Lunar Samples
The first soil samples ever taken from the far side of the Moon arrived on Earth today. State media stated that the Chang’e 6 craft was landing in Inner Mongolian at 2:07PM Beijing time.
Earlier this month it used a drill and scoop to collect samples from a lava flow in an area known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Carlson, who is an emeritus researcher at Carnegie Science in Washington DC, says these new samples should confirm the Apollo-era origin story — that the entire moon was forged quickly around 4.5 billion years ago.
The theory is widely accepted today, but the evidence remains somewhat limited. That’s because the Apollo missions (as well as the Soviet Union’s robotic Luna missions) all landed on the near side of the moon — the one that always faces the Earth.
On the far side of the moon is where the Chang’e 6 probe landed. That’s a much more challenging task because the far side faces away from our planet and there’s no direct way to communicate. The signal from Chang’e 6 was relayd by a satellite over the moon.
If the Chang’e 6 sample gives the same age as the Apollo sample, you are likely looking at a global event, he says. The textbooks will have to be rewritten again if not.
Why is the far side of the Moon so different from the near side? J. J. Head, planetary scientist at Brown University, and professor at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
Jim Head, a planetary scientist at Brown University, believes that the far side of the moon has many other mysteries. Unlike the near side, he says, the far side appears devoid of lava-flooded areas known as “maria”.
“It’s pretty clear that the far side and the near side have many, many differences,” Head says. It is a critical issue. You can not understand the origin of a planet with one hemisphere.
The rivalry between China and the U.S. over the moon is one of the things that’s going on. Both nations would like to have humans back on the moon by the end of the decade.
But China has also offered to share at least some of its new moon samples with American researchers, and NASA is allowing the U.S. scientists to submit proposals. Carlson is all for it:
Scientists hope that by studying the terrain of the far side of the Moon, they can gain a better understanding of the early history of Earth. It’s also a significant milestone in the escalating global space race to establish a presence on the Moon.
The Far Side of the Moon: What Does It Tell Us About Ancient Scattering and the Origins of Life on Earth? An Update on China’s National Space Administration
The China National Space Administration was orgened by the President, who said that it was a “landmark achievement in our country’s effort at becoming a space and technological power.”
The South Pole–Aitken Basin is a giant impact crater that formed about 4.26 billion years ago. Compared to the smoother near side of the Moon, the far side is pockmarked with craters from ancient collisions. The questions relating to the formation of the Moon’s craters and what they hold are important.
The impact of Chang’e 6 on our understanding of the origins of life on Earth was cited in a post by the nonprofit The Planetary Society earlier this year. There’s been more scrutiny lately into how fierce that bombardment actually was. Some of these questions could be answered with samples from the far side of the Moon.
China plans to send its Chang’e 7 spacecraft to the Moon’s south pole in 2026 to search for water and other resources that could potentially support long-term missions on the Moon. NASA wants to send the first humans to the lunar south pole region in 2026 as part of its Artemis III mission.
