![]() The paper states that continued exploration by Yutu-2 will target “materials on the floor of the Von Kármán crater to understand their geologic context, origin and abundance, and to assess the possibility of sample-return scenarios.” If successful, Chang’e-6 could then attempt the same same feat from the SPA on the far side. China’s first sample return mission, Chang’e-5, is currently scheduled to land on the near side close to the end of the year. Head also notes that the results could pave the way for a possible far side SPA sample return mission. “This initial reconnaissance will be further investigated and validated by the continuing and ongoing Chang’e-4 surface exploration, and we look forward to these further results.” Head, the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University. are very exciting and suggest that indeed lunar mantle material may be available on the surface in the SPA area,” says James W. “The initial results of this first farside SPA surface exploration reported in Nature by Li et al. The Yutu-2 VNIS spectra are clearly different from those returned by the same instrument aboard Yutu-1 from the Chang’e-3 mission, which landed in Mare Imbrium on the near side in December 2013, and also differ from spectra of most samples collected from the Moon. It is visible in this GRAIL map of lunar crustal thickness as broad blue spot on the farside. These spectra have been interpreted by the paper’s authors to represent the presence of olivine and low-calcium pyroxene, materials that may originate from the Moon’s mantle.Ĭhang’e-4 set down in the Von Kármán crater within the south pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, an ancient and gigantic 2,500-kilometer-wide, 13-kilometer-deep impact basin which may have penetrated the Moon’s crust and reached the mantle below. The Visible and Near Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS) aboard Yutu-2 made the first in situ observations-detecting scattered or reflected light from surface materials-on the lunar far side. The possibility of accessing mantle rocks exposed within an enormous impact basin was a major reason for attempting the challenging farside landing. The mission’s Yutu-2 rover, deployed from the lander shortly after the Chang’e-4 landing on 3 January, has, with the help of the Queqiao relay satellite, returned data which suggests it has discovered material derived from the Moon’s mantle, according to research published today in Nature. ![]() The first science results from the unprecedented Chang’e-4 lunar far side mission are in. ![]()
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