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Chinese Space Probe Successfully Lands on Dark Side of the Moon

Mansoor

Sempai
4 Mar 2016
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The Chang'e-4 probe made a 'bullseye' landing in the Moon's Aitken Basin Von Kármán crater.

China's Chang'e-4 probe made a 'smooth and precise' landing on the far side of the Moon at 10:26 a.m. BJT Thursday. This is the first time a probe has landed in this area of the moon.


#China's Chang'e-4 probe sends back world's first close shot of moon's far side after historic soft landing on uncharted area China's Chang'e-4 makes historic landing on Moon's far side pic.twitter.com/ReORkkPcq3
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 3, 2019


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The plucky probe sent back the first image from this uncharted territory via the relay satellite Queqiao (Magpie Bridge). This area of the moon is never visible from earth due to the phenomenon called tidal locking.



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'Dark side' gets first look

Despite being known as the 'dark' side, the non-visible sides receive just as much daylight as the earth facing side. Chang'e-4 will examine this mysterious area of the Moon.


Instruments on the lander and rover will study the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure of the area as well as perform low-frequency radio astronomical observation.


"China is on the road to become a strong space nation. And this marks one of the milestone events of building a strong space nation," chief designer for the lunar mission, Wu Weiren, told CCTV.
 
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