Chang'e 5 - The attempt to collect samples from the Moon and bring them back to Earth.

[pmborg]

The Long March-5 Y5 launch vehicle launched the Chang’e-5 lunar probe from the

Wenchang Space Launch Center, Hainan Province, China, on 23 November 2020, at 20:30 UTC.

Chang’e-5  is China’s first mission to attempt to collect samples from the Moon and bring them back to Earth.

 

 For those that are curious about the Long March-5 here the version for KSP:

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by pmborg

[magnemoe]

Love this mission, its kind of an mini Apollo one with docking in moon orbit. This let you get away with an smaller accent stage who was also why Apollo used it.

Benefit if that if docking is automatic this would also work for an Mars sample return. 
Yes you need to beef up things quite a bit but for Mars you need to dock in orbit. 

[Entropian]

Yeah, I've been keeping track of this one.  It's pretty much an unmanned Apollo.  I guess NASA did it that way for a reason...

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, Entropian said:

Yeah, I've been keeping track of this one.  It's pretty much an unmanned Apollo.  I guess NASA did it that way for a reason...

Note that the Soviet sample return missions used direct return. Simpler but require an larger accent stage, on other hand not sure they would save that much if they did automatic docking back in the 70'ts. 
Direct return with an manned mission would require an significantly larger rocket than an saturn 5, the return capsule here is much larger than the sample return bucket and docking hardware is much less of the dry mass.

[mikegarrison]

Blue Origin has obviously been taking lessons from the Chinese.

The lander will land "at an appropriate time", they say.

[coyotesfrontier]

If this succeeds, will it be the first return of moon rocks since Apollo 17?

[linuxgurugamer]

5 minutes ago, coyotesfrontier said:

If this succeeds, will it be the first return of moon rocks since Apollo 17?

Yes

[YNM]

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

2 hours ago, coyotesfrontier said:

If this succeeds, will it be the first return of moon rocks since Apollo 17?

Yes

Luna 24 was the latest in 1976. This will be the latest again after 44 years.

Also we have a thread for CNSA/other chinese missions :

idk if this thread would later be merged there or not.

@050644zf Would you please tell us if there'd be any livestream on bilibili ?

Edited December 1, 2020 by YNM

[050644zf]

7 hours ago, YNM said:

Would you please tell us if there'd be any livestream on bilibili ?

 

youtube relay: Chang'e 5 Moon Landing Live Stream - YouTube

Edited December 1, 2020 by 050644zf

[050644zf]

smh, seems no streaming allowed

waiting for another "streaming" tmr morning (10am UTC+8)

Update:
Official confirmed CE-5 Lander & Ascender  successfully landed

Edited December 1, 2020 by 050644zf

[050644zf]

 

 

[wumpus]

On 11/30/2020 at 10:48 AM, Entropian said:

Yeah, I've been keeping track of this one.  It's pretty much an unmanned Apollo.  I guess NASA did it that way for a reason...

It seems unbelievably complicated just for a return sample.  I suspect they are practicing for a real Apollo.  Or maybe they wanted much more rocks than the  Soviet mission and had to go full Apollo to maximize what could fit in the rocket.  And perhaps I shouldn't say "Apollo", but "Saturn V" as there was a "direct ascent" plan and some work on designing Nova rockets (as well as Saturn C-8) to do that.  They would have been huge and even more expensive and risky.  But humans (and life support) are a fixed size: you can scale a sample return however you want.  But if you want to maximize your samples while sticking to your Long March booster, then Apollo it is.

[pmborg]

For those that are curious about the Long March-5 here the version for KSP:

 

[Guest]

No one has posted an image yet so here you go

I can't find the origin on this image but when I do I can get some crediting in

Edited December 1, 2020 by Guest

[pmborg]

 

4 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

No one has posted an image yet so here you go

I can't find the origin on this image but when I do I can get some crediting in

This view of the moon's surface was taken by the landing camera of Chang'e 5 shortly after its Dec. 1, 2020 touchdown in the Ocean of Storms. A shadow from one of the lander's legs is visible on the lunar surface. (Image credit: China National Space Administration/CLEP)

LINK: https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-5-lands-on-moon-to-collect-lunar-samples

Edited December 1, 2020 by pmborg

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, pmborg said:

There is no images but landed already, the images will be later

I found the tweet it came from. You are right I don't think this is Chang'e 5

 

 

ok even better I found where that tweet originated from

 

[pmborg]

Chang’e-5 lands on the Moon:

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by pmborg

[pmborg]

-- CG Animation Video --

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by pmborg

[050644zf]

1 hour ago, pmborg said:

 

This is not official video but CG

[Superfluous J]

7 hours ago, wumpus said:

It seems unbelievably complicated just for a return sample.

Not if it increases the cost by 1% but the payoff buy 100%.

Note I don't know the actual values there. I was being conservative they're probably more skewed.

[mikegarrison]

The only "payoff" really is to be able to say "we brought samples from the moon back". That's the only reason for the Luna return missions -- just to try to salve the Soviet pride and show that the US bringing moon samples back was something they could do too.

(The Luna missions brought 0.301 kg of samples back, compared to the 381 kg brought back by Apollo missions.)

[050644zf]

7 hours ago, wumpus said:

It seems unbelievably complicated just for a return sample.  I suspect they are practicing for a real Apollo. 

Yes

Quote

Actually, the system can be much simplified if the mission is for sampling only. However, considering the future crewed moon landing program, we implemented the current scheme to perform more technical testing. 

--Chief Designer of CLEP, Wu Weiren

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

35 minutes ago, 050644zf said:

This is not official video but CG

Shadow looked weird, that's for sure.

7 hours ago, wumpus said:

It seems unbelievably complicated just for a return sample.  I suspect they are practicing for a real Apollo.  Or maybe they wanted much more rocks than the  Soviet mission and had to go full Apollo to maximize what could fit in the rocket. 

Well... if they do a full Apollo, would that mean the Chinese beat the Soviets in the Space Race?

[050644zf]

streaming of CGTN: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-01/Live-Special-coverage-of-China-s-Chang-e-5-landing-operation--VS0u4pTHbi/index.html

youtube: 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by 050644zf

[050644zf]

now streaming surface sampling