While a number of missions have studied our cosmic satellite from afar, only one rover has landed on the moon.
The Chinese Chang'e 3 lander and Yutu — or Jade Rabbit — rover touched down on December of 2013.
The tiny, six-wheeled, solar-powered rover operated on the lunar surface for around three years.
Now, the Chinese National Space Agency is planning to send a new lander and rover to the moon.
The mission is part of China's ambitious push to explore the moon's resources and potential as a space base — with a following mission next year to recover samples of the moon's surface for study on Earth.
Why the far side of the moon?
Pink Floyd might have called it the dark side of the moon, but the far side of the moon is not dark at all — at least not when it comes to sunlight.
The moon takes the same time to spin on its axis as it takes to complete one full orbit, so we only see one side of the moon from Earth.
"We never see the far side of the moon, but it does get sunlight," explained Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist from the Australian National University.
The dominant feature being the 2,500km-wide South Pole-Aitken basin, the moon's oldest and deepest crater. The geology of this basin may help us understand how the moon formed, Dr Tucker said."And this might give us clues to the composition and future use of the moon as a stepping stone to Mars."
The orbiting spacecraft has indicated iron, thorium, titanium and other exotic minerals in this basin which exist nowhere else on the moon. Since, the far side faces away from Earth, it is also shielded from radio transmissions. Radio darkness makes exploring the far side extremely challenging, which is why it has not been attempted until now. This makes it the perfect place from which to study the universe.
In May, the Chinese space program launched the Queqiao — or Magpie Bridge — communications satellite to overcome this problem.
Named after a Chinese folk tale where the magpies of the world form a bridge to reunite lovers in the Milky Way, Queqiao now orbits a point behind the far side of the moon.
"There's a point about 60,000km behind the far side of the moon out in space which is gravitationally stable," Mr Holmes said.
The Queqiao satellite orbits a gravitationally stable point on the far side of the moon. This point, known as the Lagrange 2 (L2) point, moves with the moon as it orbits Earth.
"If you put a satellite at this L2 point, it will just stay there without using any fuel," Mr Holmes said. Thus solving the problem of radio frequency communication.
These experiments could not only benefit China, which has expressed a desire to send humans to the moon by 2030, but a number of other nations and private companies.
So we all wish the Chinese National Space Agency with all the success in this mission for this might prove to be an important stepping stone towards hitting the milestone of the age-old search for life beyond Earth. May the odds be in their favour.
Anika Nawar Ahmed
XI Indigo
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