奇速英语

嫦娥五号发射成功！时隔44年将再创人类月球取样壮举

China has launched a mission to try to get rock samples from the Moon. Its robotic Chang'e-5 spacecraft departed the Wenchang launch complex on a Long March 5 rocket early on Tuesday morning local time, and if successful should return to Earth in mid-December. It's more than 40 years since the Americans and the Soviets brought home lunar rock and "soil" for analysis. China aims to be only the third country to achieve this feat, which will be an extremely complex endeavour.

It's a multi-step process that involves an orbiter, a lander-ascender and finally a return component that uses a capsule to survive a fast and hot entry into Earth's atmosphere at the end of the mission. But confidence should be high after a series of lunar missions that started just over a decade ago with a couple satellites. These were followed up by lander-rover combinations—with the most recent, Chang'e-4, making a soft touch down on the Moon's farside, something no nation had previously accomplished.

Chang'e-5 is going to target a nearside location called Mons Rümker, a high volcanic complex in a region known as Oceanus Procellarum. The rocks in this location are thought to be very young compared with those sampled by the US Apollo astronauts and the Soviet Luna robots. This will give scientists another data point for the method they use to age events in the inner Solar System.

When Chang'e-5 arrives at the Moon, it will go into orbit. A lander will then detach and make a powered descent. Once down, instruments will characterise the surroundings before getting some surface material. The lander has the capacity also to drill into the soil. An ascent vehicle will carry the samples back up to rendezvous with the orbiter. A shepherding craft will direct the capsule to enter the atmosphere over Inner Mongolia.