By Brian Fagioli
The side of the moon that never faces Earth has been breached. China announced on Wednesday that its rover had touched down on the far side of the moon, a first for humanity.
While the U.S. and Russia have sent astronauts to the side of the moon that faces us, and numerous probes as well, no one has ever managed to land on the other side. As such this represents a significant achievement, experts said.
China Central Television (CCTV) briefly reported the news at the top of its noon broadcast, the Associated Press said, noting that the landing had happened at 10:26 a.m. There was some confusion at the outset, because shortly before that the state media outlets China Daily and China Global Television Network (CGTN) had pronounced the mission a success in tweets that were immediately deleted, CNN and The New York Times reported. The official word came down at 8 p.m. PT from CCTV, CNET said.
The rocket had taken off on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7 here) containing a lunar lander and a six-wheeled rover, according to CNET. It entered lunar orbit on Dec. 12.
#BREAKING China's Chang'e-4 probe lands successfully on far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. BJT Thursday, marking the first ever soft-landing in this uncharted area pic.twitter.com/rTlJ4EzOw2
--- CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 3, 2019
The work done by Chang’e 4 -- named after China’s mythological moon goddess, according to the Times – will lay the groundwork for numerous subsequent missions. The spacecraft’s rover will conduct low-frequency radio astronomical observations and probe the structure and mineral composition of the terrain, AP said.
The exploration could yield information on everything from the origins and evolution of Earth’s satellite, to the mineral and resource content of the crater in which it landed. The latter could pave the way for China to exploit these resources.
“This is a major achievement technically and symbolically,” said Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst who has written about space for the Minerva Research Institute, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, to The New York Times. “China views this landing as just a steppingstone, as it also views its future manned lunar landing, since its long-term goal is to colonize the moon and use it as a vast supply of energy.”
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