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Chang’e 4 – China lands on ‘dark side of Moon’ and snaps first EVER image of uncharted lunar surface
The space probe loaded with over a ton of scientific equipment, made the historic landing on Thursday morning, Chinese state media said
A CHINESE spacecraft has landed on the dark side of the moon -and snapped the first ever picture of the uncharted lunar surface.
Chang'e-4, a space probe loaded with over a ton of scientific equipment, made the historic landing on Thursday morning, Chinese state media said.
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It comes as China looks to position itself as a leading space power, and marks a big step in Beijing's plans to build a manned lunar base.
A read: "China’s Chang’e 4 probe landed on the moon’s far side at 10:26am BJT today.";
Chang'e-4's target is a crater nestled in the South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the biggest impact basins in the solar system.
At around 1,600 miles across and eight miles deep, it is the largest, oldest, and deepest basin on the moon.
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China reveals the Chang'e 4 lunar rover that they are sending to the far side of the moon
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There was some confusion as China announced the landing at 1am before promptly deleting the announcement.
Chang'e-4's successful landing was confirmed at 2.20pm local time, (4.15am GMT).
The probe consists of a lander and a small six-wheeled rover that will explore the moon's surface.
They will track radiation levels and gather soil samples ahead of plans for a lunar base, which China hopes to assemble in the 2030s.
Some crackpot conspiracy theorists claim the mission will run into an advanced alien civilisation on the mysterious dark side of the moon.
A canister strapped to Chang'e-4's lander is filled with seeds and silkworm eggs – part of an attempt to grow plants on the moon.
The setup could be used by astronauts to sprout food on future lunar outposts.
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Animation reveals how China successfully landed on 'dark side of Moon' and snaps first ever image of uncharted lunar surface
If successful, the Chang'e-4 mission will mark the first time a probe has ever touched down on the dark side of the moon, a region that largely remains a mystery to scientists.
“Going to the far side of the moon is a major technological feather in the cap for China,” Katherine Joy, a lunar scientist at the University of Manchester, told
“The Chinese lunar space programme is hugely ambitious."
The moon's dark side permanently faces away from Earth because the rocky world is close enough to remain locked in position by our planet's gravitational field.
Scientists think the dark side's Von Kármán impact crater, where Chang'e-4 will land, contains rocks that wouldn't normally be found on the surface of the moon.
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As the mission's lander and rover will always face away from Earth, mission control will communicate with them via a relay satellite that is orbiting the moon.
The lander is loaded with radiation-detecting instruments called low-frequency radio spectrometers.
These will scan radioactive particles in the atmosphere to learn more about the universe's 'dark age' - the first few hundred million years following the Big Bang.
The moon's dark side is ideal for human settlements because it houses water in the form of ice, and German radiation detectors strapped to the lander will test how dangerous it would be for people to live there long-term.
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The rover, which is powered by solar panels and topped with a panoramic camera, will analyse the chemical make-up of lunar rock by measuring visible and infrared light.
The Swedish-designed equipment will help scientists better understand the interaction of radiation from the sun, also known as solar wind, with the moon's surface.
China is also investing heavily in its military with a hypersonic railgun spotted on one of its warships yesterday.
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