A Chinese spacecraft is set for a world first in the New Year by landing on the dark side of the Moon.
Chang’e-4, which launches on December 8, is hoping to investigate the far side of the Moon’s surface and conduct the first investigations into whether plants will grow there.
The mission, comprising of a lander and a rover, will leave Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province and enter the Moon’s orbit before touching down in a massive crater near the Moon’s south pole.
It will map the region surrounding the landing site and measure the Moon’s layers using radar technology.
The rover is also hoping to measure the mineral composition of the Moon with an infrared spectrometer, which could help geologists understand the processes involved in its early evolution.
If the landing is successful, Chang’e-4 will also conduct the first radio astronomy experiments from the far side of the Moon.
Dr Carolyn van der Bogert, a planetary geologist at Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster, Germany, said: “This mission is definitely a significant and important accomplishment in lunar exploration.”
The first photo was taken of the far side of the Moon in 1959 by the USSR’s unmanned Luna 3, but no space program has ever landed a rover on it.
China has also launched a relay satellite, Queqiao, to communicate with the Chang’e-4.
