Chang'e 5

Chang'e 5
嫦娥五号

Operator	CNSA
Mission type	Surface sample return
Launch date	2018
Moon landing
Date	2018

Chang'e 5 will be a Chinese lunar exploration mission current scheduled for launch in 2018. Chang'e 5 will be China's first sample return mission, aiming to return at least 2 kilograms of lunar soil and rock samples back to the Earth. The probe will be launched by Long March 5 rocket in Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. After making a soft landing on the Moon, the lander will dig and collect a lunar sample from up to 2 meters below the surface. The lander will carry engineer landing cameras, optical cameras, a lunar mineral spectrometer, a lunar soil gas analytical instrument, a lunar soil composition analytical instrument, a sampling sectional thermodetector, and a robotic drilling rig. Unlike earlier Soviet missions, the mission will make an automatic rendezvous and docking with the return module in lunar orbit before flying back to the Earth.