China sent a robotic spacecraft to space on Friday to bring back samples from the far side of the moon for the first time, as the country bolsters its space programme. The mission also included a payload from Pakistan, but what’s more in it.

On Chang’e-6, China has also carried payloads from France, Italy, and Sweden.

France is providing the Detection of Outgassing RadoN (DORN) instrument which will detect radon outgassing from the lunar crust. Sweden, with ESA support, will contribute to the “Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface” (NILS) payload. An Italian passive laser retro-reflector is also aboard.

The seven-kg ICUBE-Q is collaboration between SUPARCO and China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The ICUBE-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface. The module is a cube satellite or CubeSat are miniature satellites typically characterised by its small size and standardised cubic design.

In the 53-day mission, Chang’e-6 lander would touch down in a gaping crater on the moon’s far side that could help scientists peer back into the evolution of the moon and the solar system itself.

According to CNN, the probe itself is composed of four parts: an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a reentry module.

It would gather moon dust and rocks after touching down in the sprawling, roughly 2,500-kilometer diameter South Pole-Aitken basin.

An ascender spacecraft would then transport the samples to the lunar orbiter for transfer to the reentry module and the mission’s return to Earth.

“The samples collected by Chang’e-6 will have a geological age of approximately 4 billion years,” Ge Ping, vice director of China’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told journalists.