China's Cheng 5 mission has successfully landed on the moon, with the aim of bringing samples back to Earth.
If the mission succeeds, China will be the third country in the world to bring samples from the moon to Earth, as the United States and the Soviet Union have done before.
Samples from the moon will be returned to Earth in about five decades.
This is China's third robotic mission to land on the moon, but this time the goal is different, namely to bring samples from the moon's surface back to Earth in December.
In fact, it is a very complex mission in which 4 manned spacecraft together will bring back 2 to 4 kg of moon samples to Earth.
The four were traveling together and entered lunar orbit on November 28.
Two of the four spacecraft, a lander, and a lunar vehicle, were placed on top of each other and separated on November 28 from the third spacecraft.
CCTV-13 just ran this. #China #Moon #Change5 pic.twitter.com/gxXBNr7mz6
The Chang5 service module is still orbiting the moon, while the lander and lunar vehicle landed on the moon's surface on Tuesday.
For the next few days, the lender will use a robotic hand to dig into the surface of the moon and collect the rock samples and store them in a box.
When the samples are collected, the robotic arm will transfer the box to the moon carriage above it.
Cheng 5 will then fly to Earth and land on December 16 or 17.
If all goes according to plan, China will become the third country in the world to return samples from the moon.
The United States sent 12 astronauts to the moon between 1969 and 1972 under the Apollo program on six flights that returned with 382 kilograms of rock and surface samples.
The Soviet Union obtained samples through three successful robotic missions in the 1970s.
The Cheng 5 is not the only mission to return samples from Earth, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission, which has been in space since 2014, is returning this week with samples of a planet Ryogo.
