Focus on china lands on the moon
Chang’e 4 probe brings joy in the New Year as it becomes the first rover to touch down on uncharted territory
The first craft to touch down on the far side of the Moon, we explore Chang'e 4
What do the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Pink Floyd have in common? They both have hits with the dark side of the Moon. Although NASA’s New Horizons made headlines entering the New Year with exciting new images of an extremely distant Kuiper Belt Object, CNSA’s Chang’e 4 probe also made history by becoming the first object to land on the dark, unexplored side of the Moon.
The unmanned space probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 10:26am Beijing Time (2:26am GMT) on 3 January 2019. After its soft landing the spacecraft, with a rover residing inside ready for later deployment, sent back its first images of the far side of the Moon. These images have increased excitement around the mission as it looks to examine the dark side up close. After having made a successful descent from a 15-kilometre (nine-mile) altitude the probe landed in the Von Kármán Crater and unfolded its antennae and solar panels under the control of space engineers in Beijing.
The far side of the Moon is very different to the familiar face that is tidally locked in Earth’s direction. It has been seen by many orbiters over the years, but it has never had a man-made rover to keep it company due to the difficulty in communication. With it being on the far side the Moon blocks direct communication, which is why Chang’e 4 has the Queqiao, meaning Magpie Bridge in Chinese, relay satellite.
This spacecraft is placed at a gravitational parking spot between the Earth and Moon 65,000 kilometres (40,000 miles) from the Moon’ surface. This parking spot, also referred to as the second Lagrangian point (L2), can see both the far side of the Moon and Earth and can therefore provide constant communication.
The Chang’e 4 probe includes a total of eight payloads – two of which were developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Kiel University in Germany – which will provide a deep examination of the Moon. The aim of this mission is to conduct low-frequency radio astronomical observations that will survey the surrounding terrain and landscape, detecting mineral composition to deduce if it’s any different from the near-facing side and measure the neutron radiation and neutral atoms.
Due to little exploration of the far side in the past scientists can only infer that the lunar crust is much thicker compared to the near side. The reality of the situation is that no one knows for sure, however, and only by conducting these sorts of exploration missions and further thorough analysis of the data can humans finally paint a full picture of our celestial neighbour which lies just 384,400 kilometres (240,000 miles) from Earth.
“The far side of the Moon is very different to the familiar face that is tidally locked in Earth’s direction”