China becomes the first country to land on the far side of the moon and capture close-up pictures from the surface
China celebrates what they are calling a new chapter in lunar exploration after a spacecraft with a lunar explorer begins probing the surface; Greg Palkot reports on what the achievement means for the U.S.
China’s Chang’e 4’s unprecedented moon landing on Wednesday is more than a stunning technical achievement. It represents an historic declaration of independence more far-reaching than the American Revolution’s “shot heard round the world.”
By itself, Chang’e 4 (pronounced Chong-guh) is nothing special. It’s a typical, desk-sized lunar lander toting cameras, scientific experiments, and a sprightly, six-wheeled rover named Yutu. But by landing on the far side of the moon, Chang’e 4 has gone where no lunar lander has ever been before – and is, therefore, poised to reveal things about the moon we’ve never seen before.
Like water.
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We have compelling, indirect evidence that ice lays hidden in the shadows of the moon’s polar craters – especially the south pole region, which is precisely where Chang’e 4 and Yutu now are. If the spacecraft are able to confirm the evidence, humanity’s plans to colonize the moon will become all the more realistic. It’ll become possible to mine the ice for drinking water, energy, and even rocket fuel to launch ourselves to Mars and beyond.
To that rousing end, Chang’e 4 is carrying a small biosphere inhabited by six symbiotic life forms: cotton, rapeseed, potato, fruit fly, yeast and rockcress, a plant related to cabbage and radish that stands to produce the first flower on the moon. More than a gimmick, the biosphere – if it survives – will further boost our chances of colonizing the moon by the late 2020s or early 2030s.
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What’s more, Chang’e 4’s exploration of the far side of the moon could cough up clues about how the moon came to be – amazingly, a simple question we still can’t answer. Was the moon a free-flying object that Earth’s pull captured billions of years ago? Or is it a massive piece of shrapnel resulting from a head-on collision between Earth and something else?
In addition to all that, Chang’e 4’s political implications are astronomical. Just as Sputnik’s surprise launch in 1957 triggered worldwide suspicion about the Soviet Union’s true intentions, so Chang’e 4’s surprise success has everyone in today’s tense world wondering what the Chinese are up to.
The development is especially shocking because China’s space program seems to have come out of nowhere. And in some sense it has. Whereas NASA was formed in 1958, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) was founded in 1993.
During the past quarter-century, however, CNSA has made up for lost time – illustrating in classic, tortoise-versus-hare fashion that slow and steady wins the race. Today, despite its belated start, CNSA boasts a robust astronaut (taikonaut) program, an operational space station (Tiangong-2), and a whopping thirty-eight rocket launches in 2018 – more than any other country.
Even though it’s generally quite secretive, CNSA is very open about its intention to land taikonauts on the moon by the late 2020s or early 2030s, with an eye to colonizing the moon shortly thereafter. The United States and Russia have made similar declarations. But all things considered – especially now, in the wake of Chang’e 4’s spectacular success – China must be considered the frontrunner.
As a scientist, I’m excited for China’s rise to prominence – the more bold, active space explorers, the better. But as a Baby Boomer who grew up during NASA’s glory days, I’m dismayed we’ve blown our lead, to the point that our astronauts are now reduced to hitching rides aboard Russian rockets, for a lack of our own.
Above all, I’m a realist who recognizes there will never be another space race like the one that defined my childhood. When – like a shot heard round the solar system – Chang’e 4 touched down on entirely unexplored territory, humanity officially entered an entirely new era of space exploration. One that is multi-fronted and far more thrilling than the old space race.
I say that because today there are many more credible participants: not just countries, including China, but corporations and wealthy individuals. And many more exciting goals within our reach: colonizing the moon, mining asteroids, landing a person on Mars, sailing to the stars. Lofty, dreamlike goals that more than ever before loudly declare our species’ independence from the shackles of Earth’s gravity.
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