China Prepares Mission to Land Spacecraft on Moon's Far Side

phys.org...

China was preparing to launch a ground-breaking mission early Saturday to soft-land a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon, demonstrating its growing ambitions as a space power to rival Russia, the European Union and U.S.

With its Chang'e 4 mission, China hopes to be the first country to ever successfully undertake such a landing.

Chang'e 4 is also a lander-rover combination and will explore both above and below the lunar surface after arriving at the South Pole-Aitken basin's Von Karman crater following a 27-day journey.

It will also perform radio-astronomical studies that, because the far side always faces away from Earth, will be "free from interference from our planet's ionosphere, human-made radio frequencies and auroral radiation noise,"

It may also carry plant seeds and silkworm eggs, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

So I don't have much to add. It'll be cool to see what they find out there. I'm not expecting moon bases or aliens but It's always interesting seeing what's in places we've never been. I'm guessing lots of craters and dust myself.

originally posted by: dug88
I'm not expecting moon bases or aliens but It's always interesting seeing what's in places we've never been. I'm guessing lots of craters and dust myself.

The far side of the Moon looks completely different than the side we always see. It's almost all craters.

a reply to: dug88

Do you think they'll publicly announce it when they come across the ancient moon bases?

originally posted by: Heisenburg
Do you think they'll publicly announce it when they come across the ancient moon bases?

Hard to say. What is the totalitarian communist stance on telling people about that kind of stuff? Perhaps they would announce it to the world to claim it as their own.

Get the US Space Force on the horn!

Trump really isn't fighting a trade war.

He doesn't want china to admit the moon base so he is using economical leverage

Ok, probably not, but this is a conspiracy site

originally posted by: dug88

So I don't have much to add. It'll be cool to see what they find out there. I'm not expecting moon bases or aliens but It's always interesting seeing what's in places we've never been. I'm guessing lots of craters and dust myself.

Here's a map of the far side, zoomable (by scrolling in) to higher-res images:

LROC Quick Map Far Side

Some background on the target area.
Aitken Basin mission, “Astronomy” magazine, Dec 2005
www.jamesoberg.com...

I always thought that the far side would be a good place to put a huge radio telescope. In one of the nicer, rounder craters. You could send up a fleet of robotic scoopers and spiders and have most of it built in a few years.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: dug88

So I don't have much to add. It'll be cool to see what they find out there. I'm not expecting moon bases or aliens but It's always interesting seeing what's in places we've never been. I'm guessing lots of craters and dust myself.

Here's a map of the far side, zoomable (by scrolling in) to higher-res images:

LROC Quick Map Far Side

Cool. I didn't know there were canyons.

I wonder if they found what they were digging for here.

originally posted by: SocratesJohnson
Trump really isn't fighting a trade war.

He doesn't want china to admit the moon base so he is using economical leverage

Ok, probably not, but this is a conspiracy site

OMG..... I surely can't be reading what I am seeing. Uhhh, conspiracy site or not, this post is waaaaaaaaaay out there.

This feature looks interesting - any ideas?



(24.5/152.2)

The other side will be so much easier to fake, too!

If anyone wants to download China's very high resolution images of the landing area from Chang'e-2 here's some info on how to do that

onebigmonkey.com...

The square you want is K1-36

a reply to: Pilgrum

It's Komarov crater:

en.wikipedia.org...(crater)

This page

lroc.sese.asu.edu...

attributes the cracks to intrusive volcanic activity, and this one

moon.nasa.gov...

explains the process in more detail.

Good on them. The Far Side of the Moon really needs to be explored, and it's a wonder why we haven't done so this far (apart from a few orbiters). The Far Side may have a very different geological history and composition.