Born in Stargard in Mecklenburg, jobs in Hamburg, the Australian state of New South Wales, London, Lisbon – Carl Rümker was a true cosmopolitan as early as the 19th century. And an expert on the cosmos. Among other things, the astronomer created a star catalog with many thousands of entries. More than 70 years after his death, the German researcher was given a great honor: In 1935 a volcanic mountain on the moon was named after him. It lies in the plain Oceanus Procellarum, the sea of storms, in the north-west of the earth-facing side of the earth’s satellite.
Exactly there, on Mons Rümker, the Chinese lunar probe “Chang’e 5” has landed, as China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported. The special thing about the mission: the research robot is to drill for moon rocks in the ground and bring the material back to earth in just a few days. It would be the first time in more than 40 years that researchers would receive new samples from our neighbor in space – and a further step in China’s ambitious lunar program, which has already made headlines with a landing on the far side of the moon and two robotic cars.
Mons Rümker on a picture of the “Apollo 15” mission
Photo: David Woods / NASA
If the current mission is successful, China would be the third country after the USA and the Soviet Union to return lunar samples to Earth. With their “Apollo” astronauts, the Americans brought back a total of 382 kilograms of lunar rock from six different landing sites. The samples are still being researched today, only some of them have been opened at all. Three Soviet “Luna” robotic probes picked up another 326 grams. In addition, around 190 kilograms of meteorite material are available for research, which was hurled to earth when the moon hit.
The Chinese now want to collect around two kilograms of lunar material. On the one hand, it should be dust and rubble from the surface, and on the other hand, at least one rock core that you want to extract from a depth of two meters with a tungsten carbide drill head.
“This is a relatively safe and level landing site.”
Timothy Glotch, geologist at Stony Brook University
The researcher Timothy Glotch from Stony Brook University in the US state of New York knows the spot where “Chang’e 5” is now set up particularly well. Together with his Chinese colleagues, he has published a specialist article on the geology of the area. “This is a relatively safe and level landing site,” Glotch explains in an interview with SPIEGEL. This is due to the fact that comparatively few large boulders can be found in the area. In addition, there are rather few craters. This in turn has to do with the fact that the surface of the region was shaped by volcanic activity significantly longer than other parts of the moon.
Young rocks
Today the satellite seems cold and dead to us, once a magma ocean sloshed there, spitting volcanoes, some of them mighty, fire over several billion years. Some researchers believe that there was volcanic activity in some areas 100 million years ago.
While the moon samples examined so far on Earth are between 3.2 and 4.6 billion years old, there could also be material at Mons Rümker that is no more than two billion years old. “The age of these rocks makes them interesting. They’re among the youngest on the moon, ”explains Glotch. In this way, geologists could learn something about the late volcanism there – and about how the celestial body gave off its heat over time. According to Glotch, these findings could also be transferred to other rocky planets in the inner solar system.
The rocks are also very exciting on a fundamental level: So far, science has illuminated the history of the moon to a large extent based on the impacts on its surface. Areas with many craters are very old, those with fewer impact marks are much younger. This chronology was calibrated with chemical examinations of the lunar samples of the “Apollo” and “Luna” material. When the much younger “Chang’e” rocks are added, it is quite possible that the history of the moon will have to be rewritten over hundreds of millions of years, according to Glotch.
But for this, the Chinese have to collect the samples first. China’s space agency CNSA will soon announce whether the maneuvers work. First you should drill, then the surface material is collected with a shovel. Both actions should take place on Tuesday. The reason for the hurry is probably the fear of the Chinese space experts that the mechanical parts of the probe could be damaged by the strong temperature differences on the moon.
“This mission is more complicated than it should be.”
Mark McCaughrean, Senior Scientific Advisor to the European Space Agency (ESA)
On Thursday, observers suspect, the ascent stage of “Chang’e 5” will then take off again from the surface. In the lunar orbit, the samples are then transferred to a return capsule that brings them back to Earth. The landing is planned around ten days later in the plateaus of Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northeast China.
Western experts find the Chinese approach remarkable. “This mission is more complicated than it really should be,” says Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific advisor to the European Space Agency (ESA) in an interview with SPIEGEL. “It has quite a lot in common with the Apollo missions and is clearly designed as another step towards a human-crewed mission.”
Long term ambitions
The Europeans support the Chinese journey to the moon with the huge antennas of their worldwide communication network. They want to cooperate with Beijing as best they can. Because they still have big plans on the moon: In addition to the USA, which at least under the outgoing President Donald Trump had aimed for a manned moon landing by 2024, China is also planning to send people to the moon. And, like the Americans, not just for a short trip.
A long-term presence is planned, even if there is no official date for this yet. “We will determine when a manned moon landing should be carried out based on scientific needs and technical and economic conditions,” said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Center for Moon Exploration and Space Technology at the National Space Agency of China.
Another moon landing by 2024? The return of the Americans to the satellite could look something like this
Photo: NASA / AP
While the Americans are not allowed to work directly with the Chinese because of a congressional resolution, there is hope in Europe for cooperation with both sides. Before humans fly one day, a few robots will land on the moon. The next destination for this in Beijing is the south pole region of the earth’s satellite. “Nobody has landed there yet,” says Esa man McCaughrean.
Scientists and space managers alike are interested in this area of the moon. There, deep in shady craters and hidden underground, there is likely to be large amounts of water ice to this day. These could, in the form of hydrogen and oxygen, supply rocket fuel for long journeys into space – or water for human outposts on the moon.
