Characteristics of the lunar samples returned by the Chang’E-5 mission
Chunlai Li, Hao Hu, Mengfei Yang, Zhaoyu Pei, Qin Zhou, Xin Ren, Bin Liu, Dawei Liu, Xingguo Zeng, Guangliang Zhang, Hongbo Zhang, Jianjun Liu, Q. Wang, Xiangjin Deng, Caijin Xiao, Yonggang Yao, Dingshuai Xue, Wei Zuo, Yan Su, Weibin Wen, Ziyuan Ouyang
Abstract
Abstract Forty-five years after the Apollo and Luna missions returned lunar samples, China's Chang’E-5 (CE-5) mission collected new samples from the mid-latitude region in the northeastern Oceanus Procellarum of the Moon. Our study shows that 95% of CE-5 lunar soil sizes are found to be within the range of 1.40–9.35 μm, while 95% of the soils by mass are within the size range of 4.84–432.27 μm. The bulk density, true density and specific surface area of CE-5 soils are 1.2387 g/cm3, 3.1952 g/cm3 and 0.56 m2/g, respectively. Fragments from the CE-5 regolith are classified into igneous clasts (mostly basalt), agglutinate and glass. A few breccias were also found. The minerals and compositions of CE-5 soils are consistent with mare basalts and can be classified as low-Ti/low-Al/low-K type with lower rare-earth-element contents than materials rich in potassium, rare earth element and phosphorus. CE-5 soils have high FeO and low Mg index, which could represent a new class of basalt.