China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully lands on far side of the moon

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN World

Updated 8:50 PM EDT, Sat June 1, 2024


Hong Kong CNN — China’s Chang’e-6 lunar lander successfully touched down on the far side of the moon Sunday morning Beijing time, in a significant step for the ambitious mission that could advance the country’s aspirations of putting astronauts on the moon.

The Chang’e-6 probe landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, where it will begin to collect samples from the lunar surface, the China National Space Administration announced.

China’s most complex robotic lunar endeavor to date, the uncrewed mission aims to return samples to Earth from the moon’s far side for the first time.

The landing marks the second time a mission has successfully reached the far side of the moon. China first completed that historic feat in 2019 with its Chang’e-4 probe. If all goes as planned, the mission — which began on May 3 and is expected to last 53 days — could be a key milestone in China’s push to become a dominant space power.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/01/china/china-change6-moon-landing-intl-hnk-scn/index.html

[BubbaJoe]

1. Uh-Oh they better watch out

The dark side of the moon is where the "Not-See" moon base is (Iron Sky).

[BumRushDaShow]

2. It's also where Pink Floyd hangs out

[Omnipresent]

3. .....

[Arne]

4. They have really ,,, gone to the Dark Side.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. That's a cute wordplay, but the far side of the moon is light and dark to the same degree as the visible side

When the side we see is dark, at the time of New Moon, the far side is bathed in sunlight directly overhead.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. NASA has crazy photos to suggest that is so...

It's a giant, fried blue egg!

Edit to add:
An interesting video
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011700/a011747/4253w-540-MASTER_high.mp4

More at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=11747

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. How are they getting signals from the moon's far side?

Aren't radio waves in space line-of-sight (on earth they can be bounced off the atmosphere)? Does China have orbital satellites that relay messages to earth?

Maybe they landed close to the pole and can get a direct view of the earthbound radio station.

[XorXor]

8. Looks like it's the Queqiao-2 relay satellite