A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon over the weekend and collected samples in the Communist state’s effort to compete with the United States.
“The landing module touched down at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the China National Space Administration said,” noted the Associated Press.
This marks the sixth mission in the country’s moon exploration program.
China launched its moon program to compete with the United States, Japan, and India in the final frontier of space exploration. After launching a space station, the country plans to put a person on the moon in 2030, which would make it the second country in history to do so after the United States.
“In China’s current mission, the lander is to use a mechanical arm and a drill to gather up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of surface and underground material over about two days.
“An ascender atop the lander will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting the moon. The container will be transferred to a reentry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region about June 25,” it added.
The far side of the moon has been generally regarded as a rougher area than the side facing earth.
“Landing on the far side of the moon is very difficult because you don’t have line-of-sight communications, you’re relying on a lot of links in the chain to control what is going on, or you have to automate what is going on,” said Neil Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at the European Space Agency.
“Automation is very difficult especially at high latitudes because you have long shadows which can be very confusing for landers,” Melville added.
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