Tag: Samples

Chinese probe lands on Moon to gather lunar samples

China landed a probe on the Moon on Tuesday, said Beijing’s space agency, which aims to bring back to Earth the first lunar samples in four decades. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-chinese-probe-moon-lunar-samples.html…

Chinese probe lands on Moon to gather lunar samples (Update)

A Chinese space probe on Wednesday began drilling on the surface of the Moon hours after landing, in an ambitious attempt to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-chinese-probe-moon-lunar-samples.html…

Laboratory experiments unravelling the mystery of the Mars moon Phobos

Of course, there is no weather in our sense of the word in space—nevertheless, soil can also “weather” in the vacuum of space if it is constantly bombarded by high-energy particles, such as those emitted by the sun. The Martian moon Phobos is affected by a special situation: it is so close to Mars that not only the solar wind but…

China’s Chang’e 5 mission is orbiting the moon!

China’s robotic Chang’e 5 will be the 1st sample-return from the moon since the 1970s. It launched successfully last week atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket. Now it’s reported to have entered orbit around the moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-moon-mission-change-5-sample-return…

Japan spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home

A Japanese spacecraft is nearing Earth after a yearlong journey home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system, a space agency official said Friday. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-japan-spacecraft-asteroid-soil-samples.html…