MOON — China's lunar probe has made history as the first spacecraft to touch down on the far side of the moon.<br /><br />Xinhua reports that the Chang'e 4 lunar craft lifted off from the Xichang Satellite launch center in Sichuan province on December 8, carrying a lander and a rover. It entered lunar orbit four days later.<br /><br />At 10:26 a.m. local Beijing time on January 3, the spacecraft landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon's largest and oldest impact crater.<br /><br />According to CNN, the rover separated from the lander on several hours after touchdown, and is expected to roam and explore the Von Karman crater.<br /><br />According to Space.com, the six-wheeled rover is equipped with a panoramic camera and a visible and near-Infrared imaging spectrometer.<br /><br />The lander is outfitted with a landing camera, terrain camera, and a low-frequency spectrometer. It will conduct low-frequency radio astronomy observations and see whether plants can grow in the low-gravity environment. It will also explore whether there is water or other resources at the poles.<br /><br />The New York Times reports that the probe has sent back the first close-up image of the moon's far side back to Earth using the relay satellite Queqiao.<br /><br />China's future space missions include sending a Chang'e 5 spacecraft to the moon next year that will return to Earth with samples, according to the Washington Post. A crewed mission is also in the works and slated for the early 2030s.
