China's chief of the lunar exploration Liu Jizhong announced on Thursday that the nation is planning to land on the dark side of the moon a Chang'e-4 probe in 2018. According to him, China is also open to cooperation for the planned mission with other international space programs.
China's National Space Administration has announced for the first time in May 2015 its intention to explore the moon's dark side, according to Discovery. The moon's far side is a region of our natural satellite where it is more technically challenging to land.
First time when moon's dark side was seen was in the year 1959, when Luna 3 Soviet space probe sent to the space center 17 low-quality photos showing the moon's craters and mountainous terrain.
The dark side of the moon is also known as the far side. Due to a phenomenon known as tidal locking, this area is never visible from Earth. The moon's rotation was slowed by tidal forces on Earth to match the speed of its orbit. For this reason the same half of the moon is always facing our planet.
To date, no spacecraft has ever landed on the dark side of the moon. According to Discovery, China will send a probe to land there in 2018, a first for mankind. This plan of China's space agency demonstrates a renewed drive in focusing on the moon. This marks also a departure from past missions when nation's space exploration often replicated accomplishments of the Russian or United States space programs.
The probe set to land on the moon's far side is named Chang'e-4, after the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, according to the Chinese website news.xinhuanet.com.
The Guardian reports that the implementation of the Chang'e-4 mission will help China in the field of lunar exploration. The Asian nation considers its space program a reflection of its technical expertise and rising global influence.
