China to land on dark side of the moon
Print Edition
CHINA will launch a mission to land on the dark side of the moon in two years’ time, in what will be a first for humanity.
The moon’s far hemisphere is never directly visible from Earth and while it has been photographed, with the first images appearing in 1959, it has never been explored.
China’s Chang’e-4 probe — named for the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology — will be sent there in 2018, Xinhua news agency reported.
“The Chang’e-4’s lander and rover will make a soft landing on the back side of the moon and will carry out in-place and patroling surveys,” Xinhua cited the country’s lunar exploration chief Liu Jizhong as saying.
The craft will study geological conditions on the Moon’s far side.
“The implementation of the Chang’e-4 mission has helped our country make the leap from following to leading in the field of lunar exploration,” Liu added.
In 2013, China landed a rover dubbed Yutu on the moon and the following year an unmanned probe completed its first return mission to the Earth’s only natural satellite.
China has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.
Space flight is “an important manifestation of overall national strength,” Xinhua cited science official Qian Yan as saying, adding that every success had “greatly stimulated the public’s ... pride in the achievements of the motherland’s development.”
Clive Neal, chairman of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group affiliated with NASA, said the Chang’e-4 mission was unprecedented.
“There has been no surface exploration of the far side,” he said.
It is “very different to the near side because of the biggest hole in the solar system — the South Pole-Aitken basin, which may have exposed mantle materials — and the thicker lunar crust.”
The basin is the largest known impact crater in the solar system, nearly 2,500 kilometers wide by 13km deep.
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