How is the Chang'e 6 mission changing our view of the moon's history?

CGTN Europe

China's Chang'e 6 mission brings exciting new discoveries about the moon's history, marking a major milestone in space exploration. James Head, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University spoke to CGTN Europe.

Transcript

00:00Let's talk to James Head, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University in the United States.

00:05Good to see you again, James. Welcome back to the program.

00:07So, as we've just been hearing, a very busy year in space, 2024.

00:11What in particular stood out for you?

00:14Well, I think it's really exciting. I mean, 2024 has been fantastic.

00:19I think leading that has been the return of samples by the Chang'e 6 mission,

00:23the Chinese Far Side lunar mission, which was spectacular.

00:27And we're now analyzing the samples, and it's incredibly exciting

00:30and changing our whole view of what the moon history has been.

00:34But there's so many other things. You know, I wake up every morning,

00:37and it's so exciting because there's a new discovery virtually every day.

00:40And we discovered things like, with James Webb Space Telescope,

00:44an asteroid belt around another star.

00:47The Europa Clipper was launched.

00:50There are 140 active NASA spacecrafts in orbit and around the solar system.

00:55So things are really happening, and it's incredibly exciting.

00:58It's going to be another year coming up that's going to be even more exciting.

01:02Well, let's talk about that Chang'e mission by China to the dark side of the moon.

01:07And some of the experiments, for example, seeing if rice can grow in space,

01:10do you think this is perhaps laying the path for people beginning to perhaps live there?

01:17Oh, absolutely. I think that our destination is definitely off-planet, so to speak.

01:23You know, we're explorers.

01:25China has historically been exploring nation and country with early explorers,

01:32perhaps even discovering America and the early sailors and so on.

01:36And we all feel that way. It's in our genes.

01:39And so, yes, we're headed to the moon.

01:41We're working on that right now, and we're on to Mars.

01:43And we're looking at ways to build things, looking for shelter,

01:47looking for how you survive and how you explore

01:50and what the scientific goals and objectives are.

01:52So it's definitely internationally the goal for the future of humanity.

01:59And new ground broken this year also in private space travel, space exploration.

02:04Do you think we're going to see more of that kind of thing?

02:08I think absolutely.

02:09You know, SpaceX has done a remarkable job of, you know, privatizing space exploration.

02:18That's the whole goal. Actually, NASA pays them to do that.

02:21It's a business.

02:22And in the United States, it's a little different than the Chinese space exploration program

02:26in the sense that NASA encourages and pays industry to develop the capability to fly these planetary missions.

02:33And so we're very excited about that because, you know, it isn't always successful.

02:37It takes a while. There are bumps in the road.

02:39But, you know, indeed, once that happens, then, as with SpaceX, it's incredibly, phenomenally successful.

02:46And it cuts down on government spending and encourages the private enterprise, so to speak.

02:53So I think there's absolutely going to be more of that.

02:55And, you know, I wouldn't mind spending a week in space myself.

03:00Well, given how busy this year has been, you might suggest that we're in a sort of new era of space popularity, if you like.

03:08You were always very excited about space.

03:09But what are you most excited to see coming up next year?

03:14Well, I think there's so many things.

03:17You know, the thing about science is that, you know, we can make it sound very, very complicated, but it's very simple.

03:24It's just simply the exploration of the unknown.

03:27And that's what we're doing every day.

03:29I wake up every morning and there's something coming in or there's something we just sent out there to look at something.

03:34Like, for example, next Wednesday, we have a flyby of Mercury by the European Space Agency BepiColombo Spacecraft.

03:43It's just happening all the time.

03:44So there are many, many things.

03:46I think, you know, China's upcoming asteroid mission, the United States Europa Clipper was launched,

03:52and we are having great developments in international interactions, a really important thing, international interactions.

03:59Space is so big that, you know, you can't say, oh, I'm going to take this part and this part.

04:03No, we need all the help we can get in exploring space.

04:06And that's why so many countries, China and the United States, are pioneering leadership in this area

04:12to engage dozens and dozens of countries to be involved in space exploration.

04:16So it's going to be fantastic, and it will continue to be.

04:19Professor, your enthusiasm is as infectious as always.

04:22Professor James Head there from Brown University, thank you for joining us.

04:26My pleasure.

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