Chang'e 6 (orbiter + lander + ascender + returner)

Mission specifications

Operator

CNSA

Prime contractor

China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)

Launch

2024-05-03

Landing

2024-06-01

Landing site

Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side)

Customer

CNSA

Payload

1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earthas of 2024-06-25^[1]Returned via re-entry capsule landing in Inner Mongolia

Key findings

• 1.Returned 1,935.3 g of regolith from the Apollo crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on 25 June 2024 — the first samples ever retrieved from the Moon's far side, from its largest, deepest and oldest impact structure.
• 2.Basalt fragments dated to 2,807 ± 3 million years old proved that the far side was still volcanically active around 2.8 billion years ago — surprisingly recent, since far-side volcanism was thought to have ended much earlier.
• 3.Paleomagnetic measurements in the basalts recorded a rebound in the Moon's magnetic field near 2.8 billion years ago, evidence that the lunar dynamo fluctuated episodically rather than fading steadily.
• 4.Geochemistry pointed to an 'ultra-depleted' far-side mantle source with markedly lower water content than the near side, reinforcing that the Moon's interior is compositionally asymmetric.
• 5.Physical testing showed the far-side soil is unexpectedly cohesive — a high angle of repose, internal friction angle near 48 degrees and lower bulk density than Chang'e-5 near-side material — with far-side comms relayed through the Queqiao-2 satellite.

Mission outcome

Chang'e 6 achieved the first-ever sample return from the lunar far side, landing in the Apollo crater within the South Pole-Aitken Basin and bringing 1,935.3 g of regolith back to Inner Mongolia on 25 June 2024. Because the far side never faces Earth, the mission depended on the Queqiao-2 relay satellite for communications during surface operations and ascent. Analysis of the samples has already reshaped lunar science, revealing far-side volcanism as young as ~2.8 billion years ago, an episodic rebound in the ancient lunar dynamo, and an ultra-depleted, water-poor far-side mantle that underscores the Moon's deep-seated hemispheric asymmetry.