China’s Chang’e-4 to become the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon

China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft has now entered lunar orbit after a successful launch by a Long March 3B rocket. The spacecraft consists of a lunar lander and a rover to explore the far side of the moon. Powered by advanced algorithms to handle the rugged terrain of the far side, the rover will make observations to improve our understanding of the unexplored terrain and observe the effects of solar winds, among other things. The far side of the moon, previously called the dark side, never faces the earth due to a phenomenon called gravitational locking, which happens when a satellite rotates about its own axis in approximately the same time it takes to make one revolution around its planet.

This mission will happen in the South Pole-Aitken basin, which is an ancient impact crater spanning 2500 kilometers and is as deep as 12 kilometers. This location most likely contains geological materials from the moon’s upper mantle and could shed light on our understanding of the formation and composition of the moon, along with its history. The Chinese space agency had launched a relay satellite named Queqiao earlier this year to facilitate communications with the Chang’e-4 spacecraft, given the fact that it will be operating on the far side.

This mission has enthralled the international space community with many praising the efforts of the Chinese space agency. It will also pave the way for future lunar missions, which will carry out further in-depth observations of the lunar geology.