Researchers in Hong Kong eye far side of moon soil samples from China’s Chang’e-6 mission

“The Chang’e-5 mission was the only lander that could [bring] back around 1.7kg of lunar regolith to Earth in the last 40 years and it was from a region many millions of years younger than previously brought back samples over 44 years ago,” Yung said.

Some of the samples were collected by the sampling and packaging equipment developed and manufactured at PolyU.

Of the 1.7kg lunar regolith from the nearside of the moon from the Chang’e-5 mission, the university received 400mg of a surface soil sample and 42.6mg of a subsurface soil sample, with researchers saying such resources would give them an edge in applying for samples from the Chang’e-6 mission.

“At present, China is the only country that has brought back lunar soil samples from the far side of the moon,” said Professor Wu Bo, director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations at the university.

“We hope to be able to compare and contrast the samples from the Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 missions to compare and analyse samples from the near and far sides of the moon.”

Wu added that they decided to carry out research on the topic of water because it would be important for future missions if a base was set up on the moon. Water was a crucial component to tackle, to enable astronauts to be on the moon for an extended period of time, he noted.

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe touched down on Earth on June 25, bringing back the world’s first rock samples – around 2kg – from the far side of the moon.