See the recovery efforts in Gaza as ceasefire appears to hold 'Is everything I'm trying to do pointless? ': Syrians helpless in face of 'sham' election Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs Residents stand near stalls along a road amidst debris while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha state on May 26, 2021 as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame speak as they walk in the grounds of The Presidential Palace in Kigali on May 27, 2021, after their press conference and prior to their official luncheon. - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on May 27, 2021, for a highly symbolic visit aimed at moving on from three decades of diplomatic tensions over France's role in the 1994 genocide in the country. Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) China lands on the far side of the moon In this image provided on Jan. 3, 2019, by China's Xinhua News Agency, a simulated landing process of Chang'e-4 lunar probe is seen through the monitor at Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing. A Chinese spacecraft on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon, state media said. (Jin Liwang/Xinhua News via AP) Explore humanity’s first moon landing through newly discovered and restored archival footage. CNN Films “Apollo 11” premieres Sunday, June 23 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (CNN) — As you read this, a spindly-looking silver robot with a satellite dish for a head is exploring places never seen up close before by humans. Named after the pet rabbit belonging to the mythical Chinese lunar goddess Chang’e, the Yutu 2 rover is making history as it sends back images and other data from the far side of the moon. The rover touched down Thursday, delivered to the moon by the Chang’e 4 probe, a historical first for humankind – the far side of the moon has not previously been visited – and a major achievement for China’s increasingly impressive space program. Thursday’s landing is the first time humanity has landed anything on Earth’s natural satellite since 2013. Its success “opened a new chapter in humanity’s exploration of the moon,” China’s National Space Administration said in a statement. The front page of Friday’s China Daily, a state-run newspaper, featured a large photo of scientists at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center reacting to the touchdown, alongside one of the first images sent back by Chang’e 4 of the moon’s far side. Reacting on Twitter, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine called it a “first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment!” China was late to the space race – it didn’t send its first satellite into orbit until 1970, by which time the US had already landed an astronaut on the moon – but it has been catching up fast. Since 2003, China has sent six crews into space and launched two space labs into Earth’s orbit. In 2013, it successfully landed a rover – Yutu 1 – on the moon, becoming only the third country to do so. While the reaction to Thursday’s landing in China – where economic concerns are becoming increasingly pressing amid an ongoing trade war with the US – was more limited than for the previous lunar mission, the success of Chang’e 4, and the global acclaim it has brought, will be a significant boost to the Chinese space program. That program will need all the support it can get in coming years as it attempts to realize ambitions that are, appropriately, stratospheric. 04:29 - Source: CNN China first in history to land rover on far side of the moon Speaking to astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft by video link in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “the space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger.” Dreams of space “The Chinese people will take bigger strides to explore further into the space,” he added. Under Xi’s leadership, China has invested billions in building up its space program, even as it asserted its influence back on Earth more aggressively and pursued the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” The first stage of China’s space dream largely takes place in our planetary neighborhood. In 2020, the next lunar mission, Chang’e 5, is due to land on the moon, collect samples and return to Earth, while preliminary plans are underway for a manned lunar mission in the 2030s. If successful, China would become only the second country, after the US, to put a citizen on the moon. Beijing is also spending big on the Tiangong program, a precursor to a permanent space station it plans to launch either this year or next. The Tiangong 2 space lab has been in orbit for over two years, and is due to return to Earth in a controlled destruction in July 2019. “Our overall goal is that, by around 2030, China will be among the major space powers of the world,” Wu Yanhua, deputy chief of the National Space Administration, said in 2016. But despite these big steps forward, China still has a long way to catch up in the space race. As Chang’e 4 was preparing to descend to the lunar surface, NASA sent back photos of Ultima Thule, the first ever flyby of an object in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of asteroids and dwarf planets a billion miles beyond Pluto. One achievement could see China leapfrog the US, however, and make history in the progress: landing an astronaut on Mars. 01:53 - Source: CNN Chinese space lab burns up falling back to Earth Red planet Speaking to state TV after Thursday’s lunar landing, Wu Weiren, the mission’s chief designer, said it was “human nature to explore the unknown world.”<doc-sep>Observations gathered from the collaboration could help future missions to the Moon, pictured over Los Angeles in January 2018 The space agencies of the United States and China are coordinating efforts on Moon exploration, NASA said Friday, as it navigates a strict legal framework aimed at protecting national security and preventing technology transfer to China. "With the required approval from Congress, NASA has been in discussions with China to explore the possibility of observing a signature of the landing plume of their lunar lander, Chang'e 4, using our @NASAMoon spacecraft's instrument," NASA's associate administrator for the science mission directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, wrote on Twitter. Zurbuchen's tweet confirmed a similar statement made Monday by the deputy chief commander of China Lunar Exploration Program, Wu Yanhua. NASA shared information from a US satellite while China told the Americans about the latitude, longitude and time of the landing "in a timely manner," he said. The hope was that NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) could observe the historic touchdown of the Chinese lander on January 3. NASA provided the planned orbit path of LRO to China, but it turned out the spacecraft was not in the right place at the right time. "For a number of reasons, NASA was not able to phase LRO's orbit to be at the optimal location during the landing, however NASA was still interested in possibly detecting the plume well after the landing," the agency said in a statement. "Science gathered about how lunar dust is ejected upwards during a spacecraft's landing could inform future missions and how they arrive on the lunar surface." Such observations could help astronauts prepare for future missions to the Moon. NASA's lunar orbiter will pass over the Chang'e 4 landing site on January 31 and will snap pictures, as it did for the Chang'e 3 in 2013. The agency said significant findings resulting from the cooperation would be shared with the global research community in February at a United Nations space gathering in Austria. Risk of 'technology transfer' Since 2011, the US Congress has barred NASA or the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from using federal funds "to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company." Exceptions are possible, but NASA must convince Congress and the FBI that the activity would "pose no risk of resulting in the transfer of technology, data, or other information with national security or economic security implications to China or a Chinese-owned company." The clause was inserted in a US spending bill after a wave of cyber-attacks that was traced to sources in China. NASA said in its Friday statement that "all NASA data associated with this activity are publicly available," and that NASA's cooperation with China "is transparent, reciprocal and mutually beneficial." Sino-US cooperation could extend beyond the current lunar project, according to Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's Lunar Exploration Program. In an interview broadcast by state television CCTV on Sunday, he said NASA scientists had discussed a possible collaboration at an international conference "a few years ago," and that US scientists had asked to extend the lifespan of China's Queqiao relay satellite from three to five years to facilitate the planning of an American moon mission. And why? "Later, they said, feeling somewhat embarrassed, that they wanted to land on the far side of the moon too, so if we let (our relay satellite) operate longer they can also use it," he said. The satellite in question aids in communications with a lander on the far side of the Moon. NASA scientists had also discussed possibly placing a beacon on the Chang'e 4 probe, he added. "If we put a beacon there, they also know where to land. I told them our Chang'e 4 can be used as a beacon for you in future," Wu said. However the US restrictions "might be a much higher barrier to overcome" in ambitious cooperation projects such as a lunar research base that "might involve sharing of technological information," said Henry Hertzfeld, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Explore further China says it exchanged data with NASA on far side of moon © 2019 AFP<doc-sep>The Chang’e 4 made a historic soft landing on the far side of the moon on January 3. Photo: China National Space Administration/Xinhua via AP<doc-sep>A cotton seedling sprouted in a mini biosphere on the far side of the moon, but is expected to die during the long lunar night A cotton seedling that sprouted on the moon has been left to die as China's historic lunar lander continues a freezing night-time nap that will last as long as two earth weeks, scientists said. The Chinese space agency announced earlier this week that the seed had germinated inside a special canister aboard the Chang'e-4 probe, after the spacecraft on January 3 made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon. The mini biosphere—which operated for over 212 hours—was shut down as planned on Saturday, said Chongqing University, which designed the experiment. The lander also carried potato and arabidopsis seeds—a plant of the mustard family—as well as fruit fly eggs and yeast. Temperatures inside the ecosystem were expected to plunge below minus 52 degrees Celsius (minus 61.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and the organisms will be "in a frozen state", the university said in a statement on Tuesday. The experiment ended hours before Chang'e-4 entered "sleep mode" on Sunday as the first lunar night fell since the probe's landing. Temperatures plummet to about minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit). A lunar night lasts for about two earth weeks, after which the probe is expected to wake up, the statement said. "Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night," Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the experiment, told the official Xinhua news agency. Once the temperatures start to rise next month, the organisms will be allowed to "slowly decompose" in the permanently sealed canister. Chang'e-4 is also equipped with instruments developed by scientists from Sweden, Germany and China to study the lunar environment, cosmic radiation and the interaction between solar wind and the moon's surface. The lander released a rover, dubbed Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit), that will perform experiments in the Von Karman Crater. China's space agency said it is planning four more lunar missions, confirming the launch of a probe by the end of the year to bring back samples from the moon. Beijing wants to establish a lunar research base one day, possibly using 3D printing technology to build facilities, the agency said Monday. Explore further Cottoning on: Chinese seed sprouts on moon © 2019 AFP<doc-sep>
China Moon mission lands Chang'e-4 spacecraft on far side Published 3 January 2019 comments Comments media caption Far side of Moon captured by Chinese spacecraft China says it has successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing. At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the un-crewed Chang'e-4 probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said. It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology, as well to conduct biological experiments. The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration. There have been numerous missions to the Moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972. image copyright EPA/CNSA image caption All pictures and data have to be bounced off a separate satellite The Chang'e-4 probe has already sent back its first pictures from the surface, which were shared by state media. With no direct communication link possible, all pictures and data have to be bounced off a separate satellite before being relayed to Earth. Why is this Moon landing so significant? Previous Moon missions have landed on the Earth-facing side, but this is the first time any craft has landed successfully on the unexplored and rugged far side. Some spacecraft have crashed into the far side, either after system failures, or after they had completed their mission. Ye Quanzhi, an astronomer at Caltech, told the BBC this was the first time China had "attempted something that other space powers have not attempted before". image copyright EPA/CNSA image caption The far side is not visible from the Earth due to "tidal locking" The Chang'e-4 was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China on 7 December; it arrived in lunar orbit on 12 December. It was then directed to lower itself toward the Moon, being careful to identify and avoid obstacles, Chinese state media say. The Chang'e-4 probe is aiming to explore a place called the Von Kármán crater, located within the much larger South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin - thought to have been formed by a giant impact early in the Moon's history. "This huge structure is over 2,500km (1,550 miles) in diameter and 13km deep, one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System and the largest, deepest and oldest basin on the Moon," Andrew Coates, professor of physics at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, told the BBC. The event responsible for carving out the SPA basin is thought to have been so powerful, it punched through the Moon's crust and down into the zone called the mantle. Researchers will want to train the instruments on any mantle rocks exposed by the calamity. The science team also hopes to study parts of the sheet of melted rock that would have filled the newly formed South Pole-Aitken Basin, allowing them to identify variations in its composition. A third objective is to study the far-side regolith, the broken up rocks and dust that make up the surface, which will help us understand the formation of the Moon. What else might we learn from this mission? Chang'e-4's static lander is carrying two cameras; a German-built radiation experiment called LND; and a spectrometer that will perform low-frequency radio astronomy observations. Scientists believe the far side could be an excellent place to perform radio astronomy, because it is shielded from the radio noise of Earth. The spectrometer work will aim to test this idea. image copyright Getty Images image caption A mock-up of the Chang'e-4 lander and rover, on display in Dongguan, China The lander also carried a container with six live species from Earth - cotton, rapeseed, potato, fruit fly, yeast and arabidopsis (a flowering plant) - to try to form a mini biosphere. The arabidopsis plant may produce the first flower on the Moon, Chinese state media say. Other equipment/experiments include: A panoramic camera A radar to probe beneath the lunar surface An imaging spectrometer to identify minerals 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.