 BEIJING (AP) — China's increasingly ambitious space program plans to attempt the first-ever landing of a lunar probe on the moon's far side, a leading engineer said. The goal of the mission would be to examine the geological conditions there with the ultimate aim of installing a radio telescope. The Chang'e 4 mission is planned for sometime before 2020, Zou Yongliao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' moon exploration department told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. A successful landing, which would be the first of its kind, could enable the Chinese to place radio transmitters on the far side of the moon, which currently can't be reached with transmissions from Earth. That could eventually lead to the placement of a radio telescope for use by astronomers, something that would help "fill a void" in man's knowledge of the universe, Zou said. While China became the third country (after the United States and the Soviet Union) to land a probe on lunar soil in 2013, reaching the dark side of the moon will require more satellite technology to communicate with the probe, simply because the moon itself is blocking radio transmissions.
– If everything goes to plan with China's space program—which so far everything has since the country launched its first astronaut in 2003—it will become the first country to land a probe on the "dark side of the moon," the AP reports. This week, Zou Yongliao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced plans to send a probe designated Chang'e 4 to the moon's far side by 2020, according to the Asia Times. "China will be the first to complete the task if it is successful," Zou said. In 2013, China became the third country to land a probe—Chang'e 3—on the moon, following the United States and Soviet Union. China plans to study the geology of the far side of the moon—which is never visible from Earth—in order to put a radio telescope there. The dark side of the moon would be ideal for studying radio waves because the moon itself blocks any interfering waves coming from Earth. However, that also makes landing a probe on the moon's far side more difficult, according to the International Business Times. Without radio signals from Earth, China will require additional satellite technology to communicate with the probe. In the meantime, the AP reports that China will be sending an unmanned spaceship to and from the moon to collect samples in 2017. (NASA recently captured an amazing shot of the far side of the moon.)