China is preparing its
Chang’e 4 mission, which if successful, would mark the first time a country has
landed on the far side of the moon. The Chinese space agency even wants to try
and grow plants and insects on the moon, paving the way for future human colonies
on Earth’s natural satellite.
According to reports from
China, the nation’s space agency is set for a groundbreaking 2018 mission to
the far side of the moon. China aims to land on the far side of the moon and
will even try to grow plants and insects on the surface of the moon.
The mission is considered as
one of the most complicated and difficult missions to space, China has ever
attempted. The mission to the far side of the moon will see China’s Chang’e 4
spacecraft launched into space on a Long March 4C rocket.
Chang’e 4 will land on the far
side of the moon, and if the mission succeeds, China will become the first
country to successfully land a controlled spacecraft on the far side of the
moon. The Chinese Space Agency wants to land on the so-called South Pole-Aitken
Basin.
South Pole-Aitken Basin is a
vast area on the moon, located in the southern hemisphere of the far side which
extends from the South Pole to Aitken crater. The Rover will carry a
‘space-gardening kit’ which will ‘pave way for a human outpost’ by exploring
the lunar surface and examining the feasibility of growing plants on the
surface of Earth’s natural satellite.
“The Chinese are pushing
back the frontier with such a technically challenging mission,” said Brian
Harvey, a space analyst, and author of China in Space: The Great Leap Forward,
in an interview with the Guardian.
Furthermore, the Chinese
space agency is also planning to send another mission to the moon which would
also take samples of the surface and bring them back to Planet Earth for
further analysis.
The mission which will land
on the moon, and return samples to Earth is the Chang’e-5 lunar probe which is
currently undergoing a final round of tests and is expected to be on standby
for launch from August,
China’s huge interest in
space exploration is being called out as a competition between the Asian
country and the United States after President Donald Trump made it clear he
wants to revitalize US space exploration. But China doesn’t only want to go to
the far side of the moon.
The Chinese space agency
claims that in a series of different missions is one that would see a
spacecraft reach Mars. This mission would take place in the year 2020, and its
objective would be to collect samples of the red planet for further analysis on
Earth.
China’s president Xi Jinping
wants his country to become a global power in space exploration.
“Not long ago, the United
States’ Trump Administration revealed an ambition to return to the moon. Our
country also announced a series of deep space exploration plans,” said the
official Science and Technology Daily. “The moon is the first stop for
humanity’s march toward deep space,” the paper said.
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