Image copyright CNSA Image caption Artwork: The Chang'e-4 rover will explore a huge impact basin on the far side

China has launched the first mission to land a robotic craft on the far side of the Moon, Chinese media say.

The Chang'e-4 mission will see a static lander and rover touch down in Von Kármán crater, located on the side of the Moon which never faces Earth.

The payload blasted off atop a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The mission will pave the way for the country to deliver samples of Moon rock and soil to Earth.

The landing will not occur until early January, when the probe will descend on thrusters and touch down on the rugged terrain of the lunar far side.

Von Kármán crater is of interest to scientists because it is located within the oldest and largest impact feature on the Moon - the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This was probably formed by a giant asteroid impact billions of years ago.

The landers will characterise the region's geology and the composition of rock and soil.

Because of a phenomenon called "tidal locking", we see only one "face" of the Moon from Earth. This is because the Moon takes just as long to rotate on its own axis as it takes to complete one orbit of Earth.

Though often referred to as the "dark side", this face of the Moon is also illuminated by the Sun and has the same phases as the near side; "dark" in this context simply means "unseen".

Image copyright NASA Image caption The lunar far side has a thicker crust and is more heavily cratered than the near side

The far side looks rather different to the more familiar near side. It has a thicker, older crust that is pocked with more craters. There are also few of the "mare" - dark basaltic "seas" created by lava flows - that are evident on the near side.

The powerful impact that created the South Pole Aitken Basin may have punched through the crust down to the Moon's mantle layer. Chang'e-4's instruments could examine whether this was the case, shedding light on the early history of our only natural satellite.

Seed experiment

The mission will also characterise the "radio environment" on the far side, a test designed to lay the groundwork for the creation of future radio astronomy telescopes on the far side, which is shielded from the radio noise of Earth.

The static lander will carry a 3kg (6.6lb) container with potato and arabidopsis plant seeds to perform a biological experiment. The "lunar mini biosphere" experiment was designed by 28 Chinese universities.

"We want to study the respiration of the seeds and the photosynthesis on the Moon," Liu Hanlong, chief director of the experiment and vice president of Chongqing University, told the state-run Xinhua news agency earlier this year.

Image copyright CNSA Image caption China's Yutu rover, part of the Chang'e-3 mission, explored the Moon in 2013

Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, told Xinhua: "We have to keep the temperature in the 'mini biosphere' within a range from 1 degree to 30 degrees, and properly control the humidity and nutrition. We will use a tube to direct the natural light on the surface of Moon into the tin to make the plants grow."

Because the landers on the far side have no line of sight with our planet, they must send data back via a relay satellite named Queqiao, launched by China in May this year.

The probe's design is based on that of its predecessor, Chang'e-3, which deployed landing craft to the Moon's Mare Imbrium region in 2013. However, it has some important modifications.

China's lunar ambitions

The lander is carrying two cameras; a German-built radiation experiment called LND; and a spectrometer that will perform the low-frequency radio astronomy observations.

The rover will carry a panoramic camera; a radar to probe beneath the lunar surface; an imaging spectrometer to identify minerals; and an experiment to examine the interaction of the solar wind (a stream of energised particles from the Sun) with the lunar surface.

The mission is part of a larger Chinese programme of lunar exploration. The first and second Chang'e missions were designed to gather data from orbit, while the third and fourth were built for surface operations.

Chang'e-5 and 6 are sample return missions, delivering lunar rock and soil to laboratories on Earth.

Follow Paul on Twitter.</s>China plans to launch a spacecraft to the far side of the moon this month. The Chang’e-4 spacecraft is scheduled to take off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan on December 8 carrying a lander and rover, which will touch down on the lunar surface. No spacecraft has ever touched down on the surface of the moon’s far side.

The mission is to explore and study the crater-marked far side of the moon, conducting the first radio astronomy experiments from that region, reports Scientific American.

Chang’e-4 is the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) latest move in its lunar aspirations. In 2013, Chang’e-3 performed a “soft” landing on the surface. In the years that followed, CNAS announced its plan to build a moon base, launching a satellite to relay communications from the lander on the lunar surface to Earth, circumventing the moon’s mass.

If the touchdown is successful for the Chang’e-4 rover, it will be tasked with mapping the area around its landing site. Equipped with a ground-penetrating radar, the rover will measure the subsurface layers. A near and infrared spectrometer will allow it to measure the mineral makeup of the lunar soil. These measurements may help geologists better understand the geological dynamics of the moon’s evolution.

The CNSA has not made Chang’e-4’s landing site public, though Zongcheng Ling, a planetary scientist at Shandong University and member of the mission team, told Scientific American that the most probable location is Von Kármán, a more than 115-mile wide crater.

Part of Chang’e-4 mission is in preparation for future crewed missions and the CNAS’s desired moon base. Among its experiments will be one to study whether certain seeds sprout and photosynthesize in a controlled environment on the moon’s low-gravity surface.

“When we take the step towards long-term human habitation on the Moon or Mars, we will need greenhouse facilities to support us, and will need to live in something like a biosphere,” Anna-Lisa Paul, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida, told Scientific American.

This specific experiment will aim to verify studies conducted no the International Space Station, which determined that potato and thale-cress grow normally in controlled low-gravity environments but not in environments with gravity as low as the moon’s.

The CNAS has another mission, Chang’e-5, slated to launch in 2019. Chang’e-5’s mission will be to bring back samples collected by the rover.</s>The suite of instruments on the rover and the lander include cameras, ground-penetrating radar and spectrometers to help identify the composition of rocks and dirt in the area. And China's space agency has collaborated with other countries. One instrument was developed at Kiel University in Germany; another was provided by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics.

The instruments will probe the structure of the rocks beneath the spacecraft, study the effects of the solar wind striking the lunar surface. Chang'e-4 will also test the ability of making radio astronomy observations from the far side of the moon, without the effects of noise and interference from Earth.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Chang'e-4 is also carrying an intriguing biology experiment to see if plant seeds will germinate and silkworm eggs will hatch in the moon's low gravity.

How will the spacecraft communicate with Earth?

Because the moon blocks radio signals from our planet, the Chinese launched a satellite, called Queqiao, in May.It is circling high over the far side of the moon, and will relay messages between Earth and the Chang'e-4 lander.

How do I watch the launch?

There has been no announcement of live coverage of the launch. If The New York Times learns of a live video stream from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, it will be posted to nytimes.com before the launch.

When will Chang'e-4 land on the moon?

China's space agency has not announced a landing date, though some expect that will be the first week of January, when the sun will be shining over the far side of the moon, an important consideration because Chang'e-4 is solar-powered.

Zhang Xiaoping, an associate professor from Space Science Institute/Lunar and Planetary Science Laboratory of Macau University of Science and Technology, said that the spacecraft would follow the Chang'e-3's trajectory. That means it would arrive in three to five days and then orbit the moon for several days (13 in the case of Chang'e-3) while preparing for the landing, he said.

Wait, I thought the far side of the moon was dark.

The far side is not dark all of the time.

The first new moon of 2019 is Jan. 6. That's when you cannot see the moon because the dark side — the side that is in shadow facing away from the sun — is facing Earth. And when the near side of the moon is dark, the far side is awash in bright sunshine.

Why is China so secretive about all of this?

Chinese officials have talked about Chang'e-4 in public, but their interactions with journalists more resemble the carefully managed strategy used by the Soviet program during the Cold War rather than the more open publicity by NASA and many other space agencies. That way, the Chinese, like the Soviets, could boast about the successes and downplay any failures.

What does Chang'e mean?

In Chinese mythology, Chang'e is the goddess of the moon. Other missions have been named after her, too.

Chang'e-1 and 2 went into orbit around the moon but did not land. Chang'e-1 was launched in 2007. Chang'e-2 followed in 2010.

The next step in China's moon program is for the Chang'e-5 robotic spacecraft to land on the moon and then bring rock samples back to Earth for additional study.

Chang'e-5 was supposed to head to the moon before Chang'e-4, but a launch failure of the large Chinese rocket needed to carry it to space delayed the mission until at least 2019.

Who else is planning to go to the moon?

Next year, the Indian government is planning to launch a mission, Chandrayaan-2, that includes an orbiter, a lander and a rover. SpaceIL, an Israeli team that was a finalist in the Google Lunar X Prize, is also still aiming to send a robotic lander to the moon early next year, even though the $20 million (U.S.) prize has expired.

NASA announced last week that nine companies will compete for robotic missions to carry science experiments to the moon. The space agency said the first of those could go as early as 2019, but most of the companies said they would not be ready until 2021.

Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, has praised the Chang'e-4 mission as exciting, and at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany in October, talked of possible collaboration with the Chinese space agency. Federal laws limit any NASA interaction with the Chinese.</s>China used a Long March 3B rocket to launch the lunar mission into space at the southwestern Xichang satellite launch centre early Saturday, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The craft, Chang'e 4, is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon; it features a lunar station and a lunar rover.

The launch was made possible due to state moon research funding provided by the China National Space Administration, which will enable the Asian state to rapidly expand its space capacities.

READ MORE: China May Be World's First Country to Deliver Space Probe to Far Side of Moon

Two years prior to the recent launch, China's Chang'e 3 craft landed successfully on the moon. The new rover resembles its predecessor but, according to developers, is the lightest robotic vehicle in its class. The model was further developed because the terrain of the far side of the Moon is much more complex.</s>China is heading to an unknown lunar landscape. If all goes to plan, it will become the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon.

The Chang’e 4 mission, which includes both a lander and a rover, is scheduled to take off today at 1830 GMT from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is yet to announce a specific landing date.

The mission’s main task is to land on the far side of the moon, which never faces us because the moon and Earth are tidally locked by gravity. Previous lunar probes have only studied this side from orbit.

“We will get a close-up look of the far side of the moon,” says Clive Neal at University of Notre Dame, who is not involved in the mission. Getting a good view of the craters on its surface could teach us much more about the history of the solar system, he says.

The mission is much harder than landing on the moon’s near side, because all signals from Earth will be blocked by the moon, making it impossible to control the lander directly.

To address the problem, CNSA launched a satellite, Queqiao, in May this year. Queqiao is now at a spot in space known as L2, where the Earth and moon’s gravitational pull perfectly balances out. This gives it line of sight to both stations on the ground and the lander, so it can signal back and forth once Chang’e 4 reaches the moon.

But there is one perk of being inaccessible from Earth: the far side of the moon is free from radio wave pollution from our TVs and power lines. CNSA researchers hope that studying this region will prepare them to send a radio telescope to the far side of the moon, where it could pick up weak radio signals from space.

“They are hoping to make some maps of this radio-dark sky for the first time,” says Matthew Siegler at the Planetary Science Institute in Texas who is also not involved.

Chang’e 4 will also act as a test-bed for other future endeavours on the moon, including potential colonisation. The lander is carrying a box containing water, oxygen and nutrients alongside potato seeds and silkworm eggs. The plan is to see if these organisms can thrive in a contained environment on the moon.</s>China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

BEIJING: China launched a rover early Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing´s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.



The Chang´e-4 lunar probe mission -- named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology -- launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang´e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

"Chang´e-4 is humanity´s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon," said the mission´s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor.

"This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018," he said, according to state-run Global Times.

Unlike the near side of the moon that is "tidally locked" and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged.

It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon´s "dark side".

No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area.

"China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"This is one of the first times they´ve done something that no one else has done before."

It is no easy technological feat -- China has been preparing for this moment for years.

A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct "line of sight" for signals.

As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao ("Magpie Bridge") satellite into the moon´s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth.

Adding to the difficulties, Chang´e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region -- known for its craggy and complex terrain -- state media has said.

The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad.

They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies -- aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side -- as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying.

The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports.

Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans to the moon.

The Chang´e 4 mission is a step in that direction, significant for the engineering expertise needed to explore and settle the moon, McDowell said.

"The main thing about this mission is not science, this is a technology mission," he said.

Chang´e-4 will be the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") rover mission in 2013.

Once on the moon´s surface, the rover faces an array of extreme challenges.

During the lunar night -- which lasts 14 earth days -- temperatures will drop as low as minus 173 degrees Celsius (minus 279 Fahrenheit). During the lunar day, also lasting 14 earth days, temperatures soar as high as 127 C (261 F).

The rover´s instruments must withstand those fluctuations and it must generate enough energy to sustain it during the long night.

Yutu conquered those challenges and, after initial setbacks, ultimately surveyed the moon´s surface for 31 months. Its success provided a major boost to China´s space programme.

Beijing is planning to send another lunar lander, Chang´e-5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to earth.

It is among a slew of ambitious Chinese targets, which include a reusable launcher by 2021, a super-powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a moon base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover.

"Our country´s successful lunar exploration project not only vaults us to the top of the world´s space power ranks, it also allows the exploration of the far side of the moon," said Niu Min, an expert on China´s space programme.

The project, he said in an interview with local website Netease, "greatly inspires everyone´s national pride and self-confidence".</s>China seems to be planning to send a spacecraft to the far side of the Moon this month. The Chang'e-4 spacecraft is slated for a December 8 take off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. The spacecraft will be carrying a lander and a rover, that is said to touch down the surface on the lunar surface. No spacecraft has ever touched down on the surface of the moon's far side.

The lander and rover will be exploring and study the crater-marker far side of the Moon. The mission also includes the first radio astronomy experiments, reported Scientific American.

Chang'e-4 is the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) new move to fulfill its lunar aspirations. Back in 2013, the Chang'e-3 landed on the surface, which was followed by the announcement of a moon base.

If the new Chang'e-4 rover manages to successfully land on the surface, it will map the area around its landing site. The rover will measure the subsurface layer leveraging its ground-penetrating radar.

The CNSA hasn't revealed the landing site of the rover, though Zongcheng Ling, a planetary scientist at Shandong University, told Scientific American that the rover is most likely to land in Von Kármán, a 115-wide crater.

The Chang'e-4 is also assigned to prepare for future crewed missions and the CNAS's desired moon base. The rover will also study the growth of certain seeds sprout in a controlled on the moon's low-gravity surface.

"When we take the step towards long-term human habitation on the Moon or Mars, we will need greenhouse facilities to support us, and will need to live in something like a biosphere," Anna-Lisa Paul, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida, told Scientific American.

Besides, the CNAS is also planning to launch the Chang'e-5 next year. The rover will be sent to collect and bring back the samples to Earth.</s>Beijing: China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

 The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

 The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

 “Chang’e-4 is humanity’s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon,” said the mission’s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor. 

 “This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018,” He said, according to state-run Global Times. Unlike the near side of the moon that is “tidally locked” and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged.

 It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon’s “dark side.”

 No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area. “China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

 “This is one of the first times they’ve done something that no one else has done before.” It is no easy technological feat — China has been preparing for this moment for years.

 A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct “line of sight” for signals.

 As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao (“Magpie Bridge”) satellite into the moon’s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth.

 Adding to the difficulties, Chang’e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region — known for its craggy and complex terrain — state media has said.

 The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad. They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies — aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side — as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying.

 The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports. — AFP</s>Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

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BEIJING: China launched a rover early yesterday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2.23am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

“Chang’e-4 is humanity’s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon,” said the mission’s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor.

“This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018,” He said, according to state-run Global Times.

Unlike the near side of the moon that is “tidally locked” and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged.

It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon’s “dark side”.

No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area.

“China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“This is one of the first times they’ve done something that no one else has done before.”

It is no easy technological feat – China has been preparing for this moment for years.

A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct “line of sight” for signals.

As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge) satellite into the moon’s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth.

Adding to the difficulties, Chang’e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region – known for its craggy and complex terrain – state media has said.

The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad.

They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies – aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side – as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying.

The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports.

Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans to the moon.

The Chang’e 4 mission is a step in that direction, significant for the engineering expertise needed to explore and settle the moon, McDowell said.

“The main thing about this mission is not science, this is a technology mission,” he said.

Chang’e-4 will be the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover mission in 2013. — AFP</s>China is set to launch the world's first mission to the far side of the moon. Its Chang'e 4 robotic spacecraft is scheduled to lift off Friday at around 1:30 p.m. ET (2:30 a.m. in China, on Saturday, Dec. 8), Space.com reported.

The spacecraft will launch atop a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Plans call for Chang'e 4, which carries both a lander and a lunar rover, to touch down on the moon in early January.

"Anything we land on the moon is significant, but this one is especially so," David Paige, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the mission.

It is a successor to China's Chang'e 3 mission, which successfully placed a lander and rover on the moon's Earth-facing side in 2013.

Chang'e 4's planned landing site lies within the South Pole-Aitken basin. The sprawling basin, which is 8 miles deep and more than 1,500 miles across, is one of the moon's largest and oldest impact craters.

"This crater has the potential to tell us something about the creation of the Earth and moon system — how the moon formed, as well as how the early solar system evolved," Paige said. "Understanding exactly when this basin formed and how it relates to other lunar impact basins is key."

The lander and rover are each equipped with cameras. The rover also sports a ground-penetrating radar instrument designed to help scientists gain an understanding of the moon’s geological history as well as a spectrometer to study its chemical composition.

Chang’e 4 won't be returning any moon rocks to Earth, but a successor mission planned for 2019, Chang'e 5, will. This would be the first time that materials from the moon have been brought back to Earth since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976.

"These missions are taking place in rapid succession, and that also demonstrates the resolve of this program to move forward toward the eventual goal of putting Chinese astronauts on the lunar surface," Bradley Jolliff, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, told NBC News MACH in an email.

China has also announced plans to launch a rover to Mars in 2020, as well as additional crewed missions to low-Earth orbit.

China had been constructing its own space station, Tiangong-2. But a rocket glitch in July 2017 derailed the effort, and China is now planning to de-orbit the 8.6-ton space lab next summer, Space News reported. In April, China's defunct Tiangong-1 space station plummeted through Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean.

China, the U.S. and Russia are the only nations to have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon.

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The China National Space Administration successfully launches Chang'e 4 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center which will attempt the first ever robotic landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019.