China Far Side Lunar Rover Has Found Lunar Mantle Material on the Surface

China’s Chang’E-4 lunar far-side lander recently touched down in the Von Kármán crater to explore the floor of the huge SPA basin and deployed its rover, Yutu-2. They have found the presence of low-calcium (ortho)pyroxene and olivine on the moons surface. These materials may have come from the lunar mantle. Geological context suggests that these materials were excavated from below the SPA floor by the nearby 72-km-diameter Finsen impact crater event, and transported to the landing site.

Sixty years of moon exploration had revealed a lunar crust dominated by the mineral plagioclase, overlying a more mafic (richer in iron and magnesium) mantle of uncertain composition. Both crust and mantle formed during the earliest stages of lunar evolution when late-stage accretional energy caused a molten rock (magma) ocean, flotation of the light plagioclase, sinking of the denser iron-rich minerals, such as olivine and pyroxene, and eventually solidification. Very large impact craters can potentially penetrate through the crust and sample the lunar mantle. The largest of these craters is the approximately 2,500-kilometre-diameter South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the lunar far side. Evidence obtained from orbiting spacecraft shows that the floor of the SPA basin is rich in mafic minerals, but their mantle origin is controversial and their in situ geologic settings are poorly known.

Nature – Chang’E-4 initial spectroscopic identification of lunar far-side mantle-derived materials

5 thoughts on “China Far Side Lunar Rover Has Found Lunar Mantle Material on the Surface”

  1. So…At some point a big rock may have hit the moon? NEWS FLASH!! Big Rock Causes crater on nearby satellite! Like the Goat says, Send SOMEONE!

  2. Frustrating cost/benefit incentives, yes. It is much cheaper at the moment to send a poor quality remote control lab to the moon and beam back the results.

  3. Elon’s boring company to moon… we need an express tunnel to the center of the moon…

  4. Well gee whiz… I didn’t know the moon was hit by an asteroid… errr…. yeah … umm… I hate to break this to you but the entire population of the human races knows that already… that’s why it’s covered by in asteroid creators…

  5. Hey, it sounds like a GREAT followup mission. 

    Send a rover with sufficient mass and fuel to TAKE OFF and return to Earth.  Like we did in the late 1960s. Apollo, and all that. Somehow we got actual walking people to Luna, with electric go-carts, motorized regolith drilling things, cameras, video, seismometers, corner reflectors, oxygen, fuel, and so forth, ALL in one rocket.  

    In the era when the total amount of computing power of NASA is easily beaten by that carried by everyone walking around in their smart-phone. Seriously… its got to be possible to get probes there AND to get stuff back. You know?

    Just saying,
    GoatGuy ✓

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