{"id":4400,"date":"2021-03-01T10:36:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T10:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/lunar-soil-sample-on-display-at-museum\/"},"modified":"2021-03-01T10:36:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T10:36:01","slug":"lunar-soil-sample-on-display-at-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/lunar-soil-sample-on-display-at-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunar soil sample on display at museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Visitors crowd around Lunar Sample 001, which is on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing, on Feb 27, 2021. [Photo by Jiang Dong\/chinadaily.com.cn]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A 100-gram sample of lunar soil was added to the collection of the National Museum of China on Saturday and unveiled for public viewing.<\/font><\/p>\n

It was among nearly 2 kilograms of lunar samples retrieved by China’s Chang’e 5 mission late last year.<\/font><\/p>\n

Chang’e 5, launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province on Nov 24, touched down on the moon on Dec 1. The 23-day mission, which brought back lunar rocks and soil, was China’s first such space endeavor.<\/font><\/p>\n

The lunar soil is on display inside a specially designed transparent container at the museum. The synthetic quartz vessel replicates a zun, a bronze wine holder often used at rituals in the Shang (c.16th century-11th century BC) and Western Zhou (c.11th century-771 BC) dynasties.<\/font><\/p>\n

The container is 38.44 centimeters tall, representing the average distance from Earth to the moon of 384,400 kilometers. The soil fills a globe, symbolizing the moon, in the center of the container, which has a map of China at the base.<\/font><\/p>\n

The sample is at the heart of an exhibition on the National Museum’s ground floor that opened on Saturday and charts China’s progress in space missions, especially lunar exploration.<\/font><\/p>\n

In addition to the soil, the exhibition features dozens of objects, photos, videos and publications.<\/font><\/p>\n

Highlights include the return capsule and parachute of the Chang’e 5 probe, as well as life-size models of its ascender and lander.<\/font><\/p>\n

A model of the rover to be deployed by China’s first Mars mission, Tianwen 1, is also being shown.<\/font><\/p>\n

Wang Chunfa, the director of the National Museum, said at the opening of the exhibition that the museum has paid great attention to building a collection of objects showing China’s major breakthroughs in science and displaying them.<\/font><\/p>\n

He said the exhibition was mounted to celebrate this year’s centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.<\/font><\/p>\n

“The exhibition is to ignite people’s interest in science \u2026 and to inspire people to dream, create and strive for the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation,” Wang said.<\/font><\/p>\n

The museum has assembled dozens of objects related to China’s space adventures, including the spacesuit worn by Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut.<\/font><\/p>\n

It also has a long-term online exhibition\uff0dDongfanghong Forever\uff0dthat charts China’s progress in aerospace technology in the past half century.<\/font><\/p>\n

Bian Fangyue, a student at Beijing No 4 High School, was among the first members of the public to view the lunar soil.<\/font><\/p>\n

“Chang’e 5 is a project of sophistication, and retrieving lunar soil marks a great leap in our nation’s scientific development,” he said. “I feel honored to be living in an era that has witnessed an achievement like this.”<\/font><\/p>\n

The National Museum has not said when the exhibition will end, but Wang said it will tour the country in the future.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u3000\u3000<\/font><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visitors crowd around Lunar Sample 001, which is on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing, on Feb 27, 2021. [Photo by Jiang Dong\/chinadaily.com.cn] A 100-gram sample of lunar soil was added to the collection of the National Museum of China on Saturday and unveiled for public viewing. It was among nearly 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}