Baidu launches digital souvenirs of Moon's soil retrieved by Chang'e-5 spacecraft

China's search engine service provider Baidu on Sunday launched digital souvenirs of the soil retrieved from Moon by the Chinese spacecraft for online collectors and space fans to mark China's lunar exploration milestone, as the country celebrates China Space Day.

The 1,731 grams of lunar soil was obtained by China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft on December 17, 2020, the country's first samples collected from Moon, as well as the world's freshest lunar samples in the past 40 years. 

This is the first time that such samples have been available to collectors in a digital format.

The digital sample of lunar soil is a digital image generated through scanning after magnifying  real lunar soil by around 250 times through a microscope, according to a statement shared by Baidu which the Global Times reviewed on Sunday.

Netizens can place orders for the digital collectable via the company’s Baidu App and Xiaodu App with the issuance of 1,731 copies of the digital samples available for each platform, the company said.

Created using Baidu's technology, each digital sample of the lunar soil has a unique, real-time verifiable ID, which serves as a permanent record and long-term marker of China's lunar exploration and the outstanding achievement in aerospace.

Other digital collectables such as Taikong Tu (space rabbit) and Zhurong will also be launched in the company’s online marketplace on Sunday, inspired by China’s first Mars rover Zhurong and Yutu.