{"id":27853,"date":"2019-01-03T04:22:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T04:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27853"},"modified":"2019-01-03T04:22:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T04:22:33","slug":"change-4-chinese-probe-expected-to-land-on-dark-side-of-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27853","title":{"rendered":"Chang’e 4: Chinese probe ‘expected’ to land on dark side of moon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Chinese probe is expected to touch down on the dark side of the moon on Thursday, according to the CGTN state broadcaster, in a groundbreaking mission in space exploration.<\/p>\n

China’s space agency, however, has not confirmed the landing date for the unmanned Chang’e 4\u00a0<\/span>lunar lander and rover spacecraft, which was launched on December 8, 2018 and\u00a0<\/span>is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon.<\/p>\n

If the manoeuvre is successful, China will become the first country to land an object on the far side of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour.<\/p>\n

The probe is carrying a robot vehicle that is to explore\u00a0both above and below the lunar surface after arriving at the South Pole-Aitken basin’s Von Karman crater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also equipped with a panorama camera and measuring devices to conduct experiments.<\/p>\n

It will perform radio-astronomical studies that, because the far side always faces away from Earth, will be “free from interference from our planet’s ionosphere, human-made radio frequencies and auroral radiation noise”, according to space industry expert Leonard David.<\/p>\n

China’s space programme has benefited from cooperation with Russia and European countries, although it was excluded from the 420-tonne International Space Station, mainly due to US concerns over transfer of technology that could be used for military purposes.<\/p>\n

Its programme also suffered a rare setback last year with the failed launch of its Long March 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, making it only the third country after Russia and the US to do so.<\/p>\n

It has put a pair of space stations into orbit, one of which is still operating as a precursor to a more than 60-tonne station that is due to come online in 2022. The launch of a Mars rover is planned for the mid-2020s.<\/p>\n

Dark side<\/h2>\n

The moon’s far side is also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth and remains comparatively unknown.<\/p>\n

It has a different composition than sites on the near side, where previous missions have landed.<\/p>\n

The United States sent 12 astronauts between 1969 and 1972 to the Earth’s satellite.<\/p>\n

The first Soviet probe, Luna 24, landed there in 1976. It wasn’t followed until 2013, when the first Chinese probe, the Chang’e 3, landed.<\/p>\n

China plans to send its Chang’e 5 probe there next year and have it return to Earth with samples – the first time that will have been done since 1976. A crewed lunar mission is also under consideration.<\/p>\n

In 2015, NASA, the US space agency, released an animation that shows satellite images of the far side of the moon.<\/p>\n

NASA says the images show the moon illuminated by the sun, as it crosses between the DSCOVR spacecraft’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera and telescope, and the Earth – one million miles away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese probe is expected to touch down on the dark side of the moon on Thursday, according to the CGTN state broadcaster, in a groundbreaking mission in space exploration. China’s space agency, however, has not confirmed the landing date for the unmanned Chang’e 4\u00a0lunar lander and rover spacecraft, which was launched on December 8,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}