China made history yesterday by landing a spacecraft on the far side of moon, an achievement that no one has ever done before.
China marked itself as the first nation to ever land its robotic lander and rover into a crater on the far side of the moon that’s always away from the Earth, reported China Global Television Network America.
This successful touchdown marks as a very important technological accomplishment for the country, also putting China in an elite category of spaceflight achievement all on its own.
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The landing is a part of China’s Chang’e-4 mission, which is one of a series of planned missions for exploring the lunar surface. Before this, China sent a lander and a rover to the moon, making it the third country to ever softly land on the moon’s surface. That lander was sent as a part of Chang’e-3 mission that went to near side of moon that is visible to Earth at all times, reported The Verge.
Since it’s really difficult to communicate with robots on the far side of the moon, no one has ever been able to pull off this landing before. Without a direct line of sight with Earth, there is no easy way to get radio signals to spacecraft on the lunar far side.
In order to get over this hurdle, China launched a lunar satellite back in May that will sit in space near the moon and provide a communication transmit between the Chang’e-4 spacecraft and Earth.
While on the moon, China will get a finest view of its landing spot, the South Pole-Aitken basin – a region of moon that is considered to be the largest, oldest and deepest crater on moon’s surface. The basin is about 1,550 miles wide and is said to be a really old crater, created when a huge rock slammed into moon billions of years ago.
The Chang’e-4 mission is equipped with numerous instruments that are supposed to know more about this mysterious part of the moon. Soon, the lander will deploy its rover that is aimed to discover more about the composition and structure of rocks in that area. However, the lander will focus more on the sky and gather data for astronomers on Earth.