Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'China’s successful mission to the moon' that was published in Newsband

China’s successful mission to the moon

China joined a select group of countries with successful missions to the moon. Chang’e-4 successfully made a landing at ‘10.26 on January 3’, at a spot on the moon’s far side, the Von Kármán crater. Chang’e-4 relayed a close-up image of the ‘far’ side of the moon through the communication relay satellite Queqiao.

The Chang’e-4 mission carries payloads, of which two are in collaboration with Germany and Sweden, respectively. The instruments include cameras, low-frequency radio spectrum analyser, lunar neutron and radiation dose detectors, and many more. The mission set up a radio telescope on the far side of the moon.

We know precious little about the moon. Its formation and early evolution present mysteries which if we come to know could guide us in planetary studies, and help in understanding exoplanets.

China has now joined the U.S. and the former USSR as the only countries to have made a “soft landing” on the moon. Beyond underlining China’s technological advances, Chang’e-4 could herald a new chapter in lunar exploration.

The scientific tasks of the Chang’e-4 mission include surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure. This is a giant leap for cosmic exploration and a major boost to the Communist nation’s quest to become a space superpower. The pioneering achievement is another demonstration of China’s ambitions to be a space power. The country aims to land a crewed flight on the moon in the coming decade.

The US space agency NASA congratulated Chinese scientists on their success.  “As part of the international science community, we look forward to learning about this rather unexplored part of our Moon exploration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The robotic spacecraft is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region’s geology and will conduct biological experiments. The first-ever soft landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration because unlike previous moon missions that have landed on the Earth-facing side, this is the first time any craft has landed on the unexplored and rugged far side of the moon. This will fulfil scientists’ long-held aspiration to closely observe the enormous region,

The picture of the landing site marks the world’s first image taken on the moon’s far side. Direct communication with the far side of the moon, however, is not possible, which is one of the many challenges for the Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission. China launched a relay satellite, named Queqiao, in May, to set up a communication link between the Earth and Chang’e-4 lunar probe.

The Chang’e-4 mission will be a key step in revealing the moon’s mysterious side. The scientific tasks of the Chang’e-4 mission include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon. Chang’e 4 is the fourth lunar probe launched by China since the country’s lunar programme was opened in 2004.

The spacecraft is largely a clone of Chang’e-3, which landed on the moon in 2013. Named after the goddess of the moon in Chinese legends, the first Chang’e spacecraft was launched in 2007 to verify China’s lunar probe technology, obtain lunar images and perform scientific surveys.