Cosmic Penguin

The other method of sampling will be via a double scoop on the end of the robotic arm, assisted by twin cameras. IIRC some parts of it were designed by a team at Hong Kong Polytechnic University a few km from me, which has worked on Beagle 2 & Chang'e 3.pic.twitter.com/i8RbPPOChq

Getting the sampling working as planned may be more difficult than it seems (ask @NASAInSight's thermal probe or Apollo astronauts etc.), but here comes the hairy part of taking off from the Moon, 1st major launch from a major solar system object since Luna 24 of 1976:pic.twitter.com/lyrV6mbzL6

So after ~2 days of surface operations the ascent stage will have only 1 chance to get to the right rendezvous orbit (15 x 200 km towards the orbiter at 200 km circular per a 2014 paper). Then it has to dock w/ it - never tried robotically that far from Earth.pic.twitter.com/d3f73nYjFR

Those who have read the details of the @NASA/@ESA Mars Sample Return mission plans would probably have a headache on this. Now the Chinese are attempting s/t only slightly easier all by themselves.pic.twitter.com/RJD6CLk0CX

It appears the docking mechanism is some sort of "soft docking" one with claws on the orbiter/return capsule side. The sample container would slide (?) into the return capsule and then automatically sealed. Quite tricky to get that right it seems...pic.twitter.com/HbeGj4C4eh

The orbiter would wait for ~10 days before making the TEI burn (can't remember why). Another 5 days would pass before they come across Earth around December 16-ish. The return capsule would separate from the orbiter at ~5000 km altitude.pic.twitter.com/jbHzIOsPH2

Then came the hottest part of skip re-entry - so hairy that the Chinese rehearsed w/ the Chang'e 5-T1 mission way back in Oct./Nov. 2014. After bouncing back to 140+ km high the capsule would make a 2nd dip into the atmosphere before landing.pic.twitter.com/y3GwdgtBRt