Chinese probe successfully lands on far side of moon, sends back images

midian182

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Why it matters: China’s state media has announced that the country has landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, making it the first nation to achieve the feat. The un-crewed Chang'e-4 probe touched down at 10:26 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

China's National Space Administration (CNSA) landed the craft in the basin's Von Kármán crater—the oldest and deepest crater on the moon's surface. The country said it “opened a new chapter in human lunar exploration."

"The whole process was as expected, the result was pretty precise, and the landing was very stable,” said Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the probe.

"The current landing location is our most ideal landing place, in other word, we are right on target."

As the moon is tidally locked, one side always faces away from Earth—the far side. The lack of a direct line of sight with our planet means it’s difficult to receive radio signals sent from robots on the far side, which is why nobody’s ever been able to land there before. But China got around this by launching a satellite last May that acts as a relay between the lander and Earth.

Despite Congress barring Nasa from working with China over national security concerns, experts at the American space agency called the landing "a first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment."

Chang'e-4 is set to carry out a number of experiments while on the moon, including planting potatoes and other seeds, low-frequency radio astronomy tests, and looking for water and other resources at the poles.

China has said it wants to become a leading power in space exploration alongside Russia and the US. The country plans to start building its own space station next year, which it hopes to be operational by 2022.

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"Chang'e-4 is set to carry out a number of experiments while on the moon, including planting potatoes and other seeds..."

I am pretty sure the soil is not arable. A symbolic act I suppose, but an expensive one.
 
There is no reason why we shouldn't have a "Starship" that can move between the Moon and Earth by now.

The Space Shuttle is far larger than the Moon capsules we landed. That means more space for crew and experiment machines. We should have a shuttle sized ship that just stays in Earth orbit and can move between the ISS, the moon and use that same strategy to eventually get to Mars.

Building a ship in orbit means that we don't have to expend so much energy to escape Earth gravity when we finally want to do a mission to another planetary body.

You can rocket extra fuel, food and supplies to the ship in orbit using unmanned reusable ROCKETS which vastly cuts down on costs and risks.

Using that strategy, you wouldn't even need to build a ship that's atmospheric. You could build it without wind resistance as a concern and use pods to transfer crew back and forth to the ground.
 
There is no reason why we shouldn't have a "Starship" that can move between the Moon and Earth by now.

The Space Shuttle is far larger than the Moon capsules we landed. That means more space for crew and experiment machines. We should have a shuttle sized ship that just stays in Earth orbit and can move between the ISS, the moon and use that same strategy to eventually get to Mars.

Building a ship in orbit means that we don't have to expend so much energy to escape Earth gravity when we finally want to do a mission to another planetary body.

You can rocket extra fuel, food and supplies to the ship in orbit using unmanned reusable ROCKETS which vastly cuts down on costs and risks.

Using that strategy, you wouldn't even need to build a ship that's atmospheric. You could build it without wind resistance as a concern and use pods to transfer crew back and forth to the ground.


You're significantly underestimating the complexities involved with manufacturing a spaceship.
 
"Chang'e-4 is set to carry out a number of experiments while on the moon, including planting potatoes and other seeds..."

I am pretty sure the soil is not arable. A symbolic act I suppose, but an expensive one.

They probably watched the movie The Martian, and figure they can claim the moon through colonization by planting crops.
 
There is no reason why we shouldn't have a "Starship" that can move between the Moon and Earth by now.

The Space Shuttle is far larger than the Moon capsules we landed. That means more space for crew and experiment machines. We should have a shuttle sized ship that just stays in Earth orbit and can move between the ISS, the moon and use that same strategy to eventually get to Mars.

Building a ship in orbit means that we don't have to expend so much energy to escape Earth gravity when we finally want to do a mission to another planetary body.

You can rocket extra fuel, food and supplies to the ship in orbit using unmanned reusable ROCKETS which vastly cuts down on costs and risks.

Using that strategy, you wouldn't even need to build a ship that's atmospheric. You could build it without wind resistance as a concern and use pods to transfer crew back and forth to the ground.
We are too busy fighting among each other as countries to unite and actually get this working. In almost every sci-fi show/film Earth acts as one. We won't be able to efficiently venture off of our planet until every country unites in the effort.
 
We won't be able to efficiently venture off of our planet until every country unites in the effort.
That will not be necessary until we can efficiently venture off of our planet. The lack of our combined efforts is not the limiting factor.
 
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