The view from the Chang’e 5 spacecraft on the lunar landscape.
CNSA
China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander is making the most of its short stay on the moon. The spacecraft sent back a massive panoramic view from its post on a lunar plain of relatively young volcanic moon rock.
The image above is just about half of the full high-resolution shot, which shows both distant hills from the lander’s vantage point and also how the feet of the craft dug into the soft, gravel-like surface of the moon upon touchdown Tuesday. (Download the whole file here.) Zooming in around the foot of the lander in particular provides a real sense of the desolate, dry, desert-like terrain.
Images purported to be from the mission have also been shared on Chinese social media showing hundreds of images taken during the descent and landing stitched together into a single time-lapse video:
The Chang’e 5 mission aims to use a drill and robotic arm on the lander to collect soil and rock samples that will then be loaded into an ascent vehicle for transport to a waiting orbiter that will bring them back home.
Other video clips from Chinese media making the rounds show the lander’s robotic arm and drill already hard at work.
Chang’e-5 has been busy scooping and drilling for samples from the landing site in Oceanus Procellarum. Here’s gif of the scoop arm in action, placing material into the sample container. pic.twitter.com/jq0hbJwV20
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 2, 2020
The entire operational phase of the mission on the surface of the moon is set to last only a few days, with blastoff of the ascent module expected later in the week and the sample’s return to Earth coming in mid-December.
