This star is going to the moon

Chapter 512 The First Sample from the Far Side of the Moon!
"Ohhhh, it worked!"

Watching the Long March 10 rocket carrying the Chang'e 6 probe successfully take off in the live broadcast, Abdul was absolutely ecstatic!

Lu Yun, sitting next to him, looked puzzled.

Someone who didn't know better might think it was an UAE lunar probe that was launched.

Abdul's team originally came to welcome the third mass-produced space shuttle off the production line, but they insisted that Blue Star Aerospace arrange a trip to watch the launch of Chang'e 6.

Actually, even if Blue Star Aerospace doesn't arrange it, the government will, because Abdul's team is indeed of a very high standard.

In addition to visiting their space shuttle, they also aimed to explore the aerospace industry and strengthen aerospace cooperation between the two countries.

This requires coordination with the government.

However, Abdul was the head of the delegation, a member of the UAE royal family, and most importantly, a friend of Lu Yun, so the responsibility of receiving him fell to Blue Star Aerospace Company.

Lu Yun had no objections, after all, he had a good relationship with Abdul, and the other party wanted to buy several space shuttles, a huge international order!
And to be fair, while China's international propaganda efforts are being targeted at every turn, the UAE's international propaganda capabilities are not much stronger than China's.

Their purchase of several space shuttles has given them considerable international influence.

Abdul was in high spirits because the UAE's space shuttle was about to be rolled off the production line. Although the UAE had not yet received the space shuttle, its first manned spaceflight had already been arranged.

Previously, the UAE sent two astronauts and a team of space airport staff to Blue Star Space Company for training. Once the UAE receives the space shuttle, Abdul will become a passenger on the first manned flight.

At that time, he will become the first member of the royal family to travel into space in his own spacecraft!

In fact, members of the royal family of the neighboring desert country had been to space before, but that was in 1985 when they traveled on the American Space Shuttle Discovery.

What the UAE is about to accomplish is sending its own astronauts, royal family members, scientists, and others into space using its own spacecraft!

This may not seem like much to the rest of the world, but it has a significant impact on the UAE's international standing, especially its influence among neighboring desert oil-producing countries.

Furthermore, the UAE knows that it will be finished once its oil reserves run out, so it has been thinking about transformation, with tourism and technology being two important directions.

Now, wouldn't it be perfect to combine tourism and aerospace technology?

Space tourism!

It feels so good to think about it!
"Going to the moon would be awesome!"

After watching the launch of Chang'e 6, Abdul stroked his beard and said excitedly, "This time our space agency has reached a cooperation agreement with your space agency, and we can also study the samples from the far side of the moon that Chang'e 6 brought back."

"Haha, if those alien conspiracy theorists knew, I wonder if they would say that our UAE has also obtained alien technology?"

"Wow!" Lu Yun exclaimed in surprise, "You read these conspiracy theories?"

Abdul puffed out his chest: "I've read a lot of things. I even read your online novels. What's with all this talk about 'thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river,' 'don't underestimate a young man's potential,' and 'I'll kill your whole family if I say I will.'"

"I never imagined that your online novels would be filled with ancient philosophy, just like what your great ancient philosopher Confucius said: 'I sit by the river and sigh, watching the enemy's corpses flow through the water, day and night...'"

Lu Yun: “…”

Confucius said, standing by a river, "Time flows on like this, never ceasing day or night..." Is this the meaning?

Did Confucius know about your interpretations?

After the May Day holiday, Chang'e 6 flew precisely to the moon, and the third production model of the Muyuan-class space shuttle officially rolled off the production line.

The UAE's space agency is not as powerful as China's, so they didn't bother with building a "bare-bones" spacecraft and modifying it themselves. Instead, they simply acted as the client, asking BlueStar Aerospace to make the shuttle's interior more luxurious.

As requested by the UAE, the luxury space shuttle they wanted could only carry four people, including a pilot.

According to Abdul's private account, the ticket price they set was also 1000 million.

However, the unit is US dollars.

Despite carrying only two fewer passengers than Bluestar Space's aircraft, and despite the significantly higher price, the UAE will ensure passenger satisfaction.

They're experts at indulging in luxury consumption.

This thing is all about the service.

And this price is even cheaper than the price of manned spaceflight in the United States.

"...Our 'Desert Star' space airport is currently undergoing acceptance testing, and this newly rolled-out space shuttle also needs to undergo some tests."

Abdul said to the camera, "In July, this space shuttle will fly directly from the coastal space airport to the 'Desert Star' space airport. After the naming ceremony, it will soon embark on its first luxury space journey..."

The people in the live stream didn't pay attention to what Abdul was saying; they were too busy looking at the luxurious interior of the new space shuttle.

[As expected of a wealthy oil-producing nation, the decorations here are the most standard "magnificent and opulent"!]

I wonder how much it would cost to ride this space shuttle to space. Blue Star Aerospace charges 1000 million RMB, could this be 1000 million USD?

This is so luxurious! Is this what a super-rich person's space trip is like?

[Haha, if it really is $1000 million, then he's not a tycoon anymore. A real tycoon would be riding in an American spaceship.]

Exactly, sending people into space costs tens of millions of dollars.

Damn, times have changed! Even oil-rich countries aren't as expensive as the US.

[This has been going on for a while. The US military spends millions to buy a single goat, and then the goat disappears.]

[Those Americans are definitely richer...]

The rollout of the new Muyuan-class space shuttle did not cause much of a stir in China. After watching the live broadcast, everyone went about their business as usual. If anyone was concerned, it was about the situation of Chang'e 6.

On the 8th, after five days of flight, Chang'e 6 performed lunar braking and successfully entered lunar orbit.

A few hours later, the "SJTU Siyuan-2" lunar probe, developed by the Intelligent Satellite Technology Center of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, successfully separated from Chang'e-6 and entered its predetermined orbit. The satellite was powered on and successfully obtained its first image.

This marks the official commencement of scientific exploration missions for China's first lunar probe weighing less than 10 kilograms.

To be precise, it should be 6.5 kilograms.

This is a rather tiny satellite, small even among Earth satellites, let alone lunar probes.

It will then continue to capture lunar image data and conduct a series of experiments.

"SJTU Siyuan-2" is a joint research and development achievement of National Chiao Tung University and Pakistan Space Technology Research Institute, and can be considered as Pakistan's international collaborative payload on Chang'e 6.

This collaborative project not only deepened cooperation between the two countries in the aerospace field, but also provided valuable examples of aerospace applications and technology promotion for Belt and Road partners.

Pakistan was naturally overjoyed, as this was their first lunar probe.

Of course, the key achievement was that Chang'e 6 successfully entered lunar orbit, marking another step forward in humanity's plan to obtain the first sample from the far side of the moon.

The Chang'e 6 mission aims to conduct systematic and long-term research on samples from the far side of the moon, analyzing the structure, physical properties, and material composition of lunar soil in order to obtain newer lunar scientific data.

Its first scientific objective is to conduct topographic surveys and geological background investigations of the landing site area, obtain on-site analytical data related to lunar samples, and establish a link between on-site exploration data and laboratory analytical data.

It mainly includes topographic and geomorphological exploration of the landing area, material composition and characteristics of sampling points, physical characteristics and layout of lunar soil, and temperature gradient exploration of the shallow lunar crust.

The second scientific approach is to conduct systematic and sustained research on the returned lunar samples, analyzing the physical characteristics, mineral and chemical composition, trace element and isotopic composition of lunar soil and rocks, the interaction between cosmic radiation and solar wind particles and the moon, space weathering processes and environmental evolution, etc., to delve into the formation and evolution of the moon. In its previous mission, Chang'e 6 orbited the moon for over twenty days before landing, just to find a suitable landing site on the far side of the moon.

Although there are general pre-selected landing areas, humans do know less about the far side of the moon than the near side, so careful scanning and screening are necessary.

With Lu Yun's involvement in this life, this process has been completed ahead of schedule. The previous missions had already included this screening process, which directly refined the "pre-selected landing area" to the "pre-selected landing point".

So once we're in position, we can land directly at the pre-selected landing point.

On May 10th, the Chang'e 6 lander and ascent vehicle combination and the orbiter and return vehicle combination successfully separated in orbit.

On the 12th, the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center started a live broadcast!
Live broadcast of the lunar landing on the far side of the moon!
This was because the lunar communication capabilities of this incarnation had been enhanced to an epic degree, so at Lu Yun's suggestion, the live broadcast began.

This is another rehearsal for the upcoming live broadcast of a manned lunar landing.

So when the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center issued the command, the 7500N variable thrust engine of the Chang'e 6 lander, which was 15 kilometers above the moon, was activated, and the lander assembly began to change its orbit and carry out a powered descent.

At the same time, the pre-prepared third-person virtual images and the actual first-person images of the far side of the moon began to change in real time.

(Image of Chang'e 6 landing on the far side of the moon)
The viewers in the live stream certainly learned a lot.

【666666! 】

【Niubi! 】

[As expected of the far side of the moon, there are craters one after another!]

Indeed, I've seen pictures of the near and far sides of the moon, and the difference is truly significant.

[Haha, all these impact craters you see are actually inside one super-large impact crater, which is only about twice the size of Australia.]

Wow, what made that huge meteorite crater in Australia?

First, we can rule out the colonies from Gundam.

【Hahaha……】

Amidst the joyful atmosphere shared by Chinese and Lao netizens, the Chang'e 6 lander, propelled by a single orbit control engine and multiple attitude control engines, gradually reduced its speed relative to the moon from 1,600 meters per second to zero.

At a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the lunar surface, Chang'e 6 used its optical imaging sensor to perform coarse obstacle avoidance and remove large obstacles.

When it was only 100 meters from the lunar surface, the backup laser 3D imaging sensor on Chang'e 6 performed precise obstacle avoidance and accurately identified and selected the landing point.

Then it began obstacle avoidance descent and slow vertical descent, and finally landed smoothly at the pre-selected landing site in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon!

"it is good!"

"It's done!"

"Ha ha!"

Cheers erupted in both the command center and the live chat.

The Antarctic-Aitken Basin is that enormous impact crater. It is named so because it is so large that it extends directly from Antarctica to the Aitken impact crater, so the two are combined to form its name.

It is called a basin, not a meteorite crater.

After all, in terms of area, the Congo Basin, the world's largest, is just a small fry compared to it.

The Tarim Basin, the largest basin in China and Laos, is only a fraction of its size.

In some ways, such a large crater also has its advantages, namely that the Chang'e-4 probe, which was the first human to land on the far side of the moon, also landed inside it.

It's just in a newly formed "small" impact crater called the Von Kármán crater.

This "small" crater has a diameter of 186 kilometers!

The Chang'e 6 landing camera captured black and white images in real time, but the panoramic camera quickly sent back color photos.

(Photo of Chang'e 6 landing on the far side of the moon)
Is this the far side of the moon?

【So beautiful!】

Theoretically speaking, could the landing legs of the Chang'e 6 probe be considered Chang'e's jade feet?

【? ? ? ? 】

【Depend on!!!】

【Fork out! 】

【Buying jade will only harm you…】

Chang'e's jade...

Ahem, Chang'e 6 began working immediately after landing, as it only had 48 hours of intensive working time.

Soon, netizens saw the first Weibo post from the Chang'e 6 lunar probe, which read, "Hello everyone, I am Chang'e 6, and I am currently digging soil on the moon."

Then came a few photos.

One of them is "中".

(in)

Yes, it means "middle" in the literal sense.

The Chang'e 6 probe dug out this character after a few shovelfuls.

This left netizens completely bewildered.

Netizens from a certain province quickly took over the comment section.

Wow, that's accurate!

In addition to using a shovel to dig, Chang'e 6 also used a drill to extract materials.

After both landers and ascent vehicles collected their samples, the Chang'e 6 lander and ascent vehicle combination packaged and stored the precious lunar far side samples in the storage device carried by the ascent vehicle, completing the "packaging" of this cosmic express delivery.

Then the red flag carried by the Chang'e 6 lander was successfully deployed on the far side of the moon.

This is the first time that the Chinese and Lao flags have been independently and dynamically displayed on the far side of the moon. The flags on Chang'e-4 were simply affixed to the lander.

Next up was the mini car, which took a "passport photo" of Chang'e 6.

(Photo of the far side of the moon by Chang'e 6)
Two days later, the Chang'e 6 ascender, carrying lunar samples, took off from the far side of the moon!

After about 6 minutes of operation, the 3000N engine successfully sent the ascender into the predetermined lunar orbit. The ascender then successfully docked with the orbiter and returner combination in lunar orbit and safely transferred the lunar sample container into the returner.

Finally, we began our return journey!
A preliminary sample of human remains is coming back!!!

[Awesome!!!]

(End of this chapter)