China casts new light on ‘dark’ side of the moon
China’s historic landing may offer many insights into the universe — and could even get the US thinking about re-entering the space race
It’s a somewhat amusing thought, picturing the universe’s loneliest potato. A hearty, single spud gallantly attempting to grow on a dusty rock that is orbiting the loud green one — home to its friends — down below. It has nothing for company save some tomatoes, mouse-eared cress and silkworms. And a robot named after a rabbit. Last week, the Chinese space probe Chang’e 4 made history with the first successful landing on the "dark side" of the moon. The car-sized spacecraft, named after the Chinese moon goddess, became the first vessel to land intact, obscured from our view. This was mostly thanks to Magpie Bridge, a communications-relay satellite positioned more than 80,000km beyond the moon, which bounced transmissions between the Chang’e 4 and Chinese space stations. Just 12 hours after the smooth landing in Aitken basin’s Von Kármán crater, Chang’e 4 — packed with a payload supplied by international partners in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia — dispatched the ro...
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