China achieves the first moon landing on the far side of the Moon with Chang'e-4

Landing on the South of the far side of the Moon. Credit: CNSA

The space probe of CNSA, the Chinese space agency, Chang'e 4 or 嫦娥 四号 has lifted the "mysterious veil" from the dark side of our great satellite (Heng'e 嫦娥 is the Chinese goddess of the Moon in Chinese). 

The milestone occurred at 02:26 GMT where it was expected, the Aitken basin, on the south pole of the Moon, the state newspaper Global Times called the successful arrival of Chang'e 4 on the dark side of the Moon a "great milestone of the human exploration of the universe". 

Recreation of the lunar vehicle of the probe 'Chang'e-4'. Credit: CNSA

Our satellite is permanently in synchronized rotation around the Earth, which takes the same time to complete a translation around our planet that what it takes to rotate on its own axis, so we cannot see its far side. In the past other missions saw this face, although they did not land there. 

This is an unmanned mission, which entered into orbit last Sunday, with its closest point to the earth's satellite about 15 kilometres from its surface and the farthest to about 100 kilometres, as reported by CNSA, which has been looking for the right time to perform the moon landing manoeuvre, having everything function correctly. 

China's Chang'e-4 probe successfully entered a planned orbit on Sunday morning to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the dark side of the moon, says the China National Space Administration. Credit: CNSA 

The difficulty of the manoeuvre was in the fact that communication with the probe could not be direct since the very mass of the Moon prevents it, finally it landed without any difficulty in the Von Kárman crater, 186 kilometres in diameter. The communication between the probe and the Earth are possible thanks to a satellite named Queqiao that was placed in orbit last May, operating as a "mirror" transmitter of information between the control centres on Earth and the Chang'e Four. 

What the CNSA hopes to find out and the main objective is to analyse the composition of the terrain as well as the topography of the area, something that can give clues about the origin and evolution of our satellite. This crater has evidence of being one of the oldest one the Moon, which allows the study of the history of the moon. 

China's Chang'e-4 probe sends back world's first close shot of moon's far side after historic soft landing on uncharted area. Credit: CNSA 

From the perspectives of engineering and future exploitation, the South Pole region is believed to have more ice water than other regions on the moon. Thus, this mission will be able to collect plenty of information that is needed to study the possibility of utilizing water in this area in the future. 

This is especially noteworthy because if human beings ever attempted to settle on the moon, water will be essential. Water can also be used to produce propellants for space crafts that are sent to visit other distant celestial bodies of the solar system, such as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. 

The final objective is to send a manned mission, it is foreseen that Chang'e 5 will be launched next year, that mission is to collect samples from the Lunar surface and bring them back to Earth. Also by 2030 China plans to send a manned mission to the Moon, something that the United States gave up with the end of the Apollo program, however experts place this mission around the year 2036. 

An image captured during the landing process of Chang'e-4 lunar probe. Credit: CNSA

An image captured after the probe's soft landing. Credit CNSA

Source: China National Space Administration CNSA, CGTN,