BEIJING — China reached a milestone in space exploration on Thursday, landing a vehicle on the far side of the moon for the first time in history, the country’s space agency announced. The landing of the probe, called Chang’e-4 after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, is one in a coming series of missions that underscore the country’s ambitions to join — and even lead — the space race. China landed another rover on the moon in 2013, joining the United States and the Soviet Union as the only nations to have carried out a “soft landing” there, but the Chang’e-4 is the first to touch down on the side of the moon that perpetually faces away from the Earth. The mission “has opened a new chapter in humanity’s exploration of the moon,” the China National Space Administration said in an announcement on its website. The agency said the spacecraft landed at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time at its target on the far side of the moon.<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. Is there a 'dark side of the Moon'? The lunar far side is often referred to as the "dark side", though "dark" in this case means "unseen" rather than "lacking light". In fact, both the near and far sides of the Moon experience daytime and nighttime. But 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. The far side has a thicker, older crust that is pocked with more craters. There are also very few of the "maria" - dark basaltic "seas" created by lava flows - that are evident on the near side. How will scientists keep track of the rover? In an article for the US-based Planetary Society in September, Dr Long Xiao from the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), said: "The challenge faced by a far side mission is communications. With no view of Earth, there is no way to establish a direct radio link." So the landers must communicate with Earth using a relay satellite named Queqiao - or Magpie Bridge - launched by China last May. Queqiao orbits 65,000km beyond the Moon, around a Lagrange point - a kind of gravitational parking spot in space where it will remain visible to ground stations in China and other countries such as Argentina. What are China's plans in space? China wants to become a leading power in space exploration, alongside the United States and Russia. In 2017 it announced it was planning to send astronauts to the Moon.<doc-sep>China is aiming to send a spacecraft to Mars next year, following its successful mission to the far side of the moon. Lunar rover Jade Rabbit 2 and explorer Chang'e 4 landed on the moon in recent days and have now taken pictures of each other for scientists to study. Officials at the Chinese space agency say they now plan to send a probe to Mars in 2020 and aim to follow that up with manned missions to the planet. Chang'e 4 and its three predecessors were named after a Chinese goddess, who legend says has lived on the moon for thousands of years. According to the deputy director of the country's space agency, Wu Yanhua, the successful mission marked a turning point for Chinese space exploration. Advertisement Image: The moon lander Chang'e 4. Pic: CLEP Its first mission to Mars, Yinghuo, ended in failure in 2012 when the spacecraft carrying the probe disintegrated after failing to enter orbit around Earth. However, now the Chinese National Space Administration reports that its space missions are proceeding as planned, with the spacecraft working well after landing on the far side of the moon. Mr Yanhua said that the CNSA was keen to partner with outside organisations in the future: "We welcome international collaboration in developing devices aboard the spacecraft as well as domestic and foreign investment." The first part of CNSA's Mars mission will involve putting a probe into orbit around the planet, but not at the expense of continued lunar activity. Image: China's lunar rover Jade Rabbit 2. Pic: CLEP "We are studying the programme of sending astronauts to the moon but it's still in very early stages," said Mr Yanhua, adding: "We haven't got the approval yet." CNSA will also seek to construct a research station at the lunar south pole as China aims to assert itself as the equal of the US in space exploration. "China trailed others when it came to space missions, until Chang'e 4, humankind's first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon," said Wu Weiren, the chief scientist of the Chang'e 4 programme. He explained the sense of national pride in the mission: "It proves that China can do something that no other country has achieved in space exploration."<doc-sep>A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community members continue preparations during the third day in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the death of George Floyd. 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(Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct Memorial Day weekend will bring rain and cool air for much of the East 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) — In a historic first, China has landed a rover on the far side of the moon, state media announced Thursday, a huge milestone for the nation as it attempts to position itself as a leading space power. China’s National Space Administration landed the rover at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon’s largest and oldest impact crater, China Central Television reported. It made its final descent from an elliptical orbit 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) above the moon’s surface, making a “smooth” and “precise” landing, according to the general designer of the probe Chang’e 4, Sun Zezhou, who added that the spacecraft pulled off a “bull’s-eye.” AP The first image of the moon's far side taken after the Chang'e 4 probe landed. State media reported that the rover, which China has named Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, transmitted back the world’s first close-range image of the far side of the moon. The rover was named in a global poll in August. In Chinese foklore, Yutu is the white pet rabbit of Chang’e, the moon goddess after which the Chinese lunar mission is named, state media Xinhua reported. Several hours after touchdown, the rover separated from the lander on the moon’s surface and began its mission. The far side of the moon is the hemisphere that never faces Earth, due to the moon’s rotation. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the “dark side of the moon,” even though it receives just as much sunlight as its Earth-facing side. AP Another image of the moon taken by the probe. The success of the mission represents a landmark in human space exploration. The area where the probe has landed faces away from Earth, meaning it is free from radio frequencies. As a result, it is not possible for a lunar rover to communicate directly with ground control. To overcome this hurdle, China launched a dedicated satellite orbiting the moon last year that will be able to relay information from the rover to Earth. “China is on the road to become a strong space nation. And this marks one of the milestone events of building a strong space nation,” chief designer for the lunar mission, Wu Weiren, told China Central Television. STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES The Xichang Satellite Launch Center The lunar craft lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province on December 8, entering the moon’s orbit four days later, according to state media.<doc-sep>
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.