Technique design and implementation of an unmanned automatic sampling return mission to the lunar surface
Mengfei Yang, Zhang Gao, Zhang Wu, Peng Jing, Ruan Jianhua, Yong Wang, Honghua Zhang, Xin Hong, Yuhua Zhang, XueLei ZHA, Wei Shi, Chun-Liang Chen
Abstract
<p indent=0mm>The Chang’e-5 mission of the third phase of China’s Lunar Exploration Program is China’s first mission to sample and return from an extraterrestrial object. The objective of the mission was to land on the selected area of the lunar surface, collect lunar samples, and return these samples to earth safely through the processes of lunar lift-off, lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, sample transfer, moon-to-earth transfer, and reentry. This report describes the mission’s technical features, brief introduction, and development process, and summarizes the breakthroughs and innovation of the key technologies involved, and presents the flight results. The on-orbit results show that all functions and specifications satisfy the mission requirements, the spacecraft is in good condition in flight, and the design of the scheme is validated.