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News:
China lunar rover, successfully deployed to carry out a string of experiments on the far side of the moon, as ‘Yutu-2’.
Impotent Facts:
- The rover’s touchdown is part of China Chang’e-4 lunar probe.
- China’s lunar probe is part of its ‘Made in China-2025’ project, which focuses on advanced technology, including space applications.
- The rover has been programmed to launch ground penetration radar that would help map the moon’s inner structures.
- It would also analyse soil and rock samples for minerals, apart from activating a radio telescope to search for possible signals from deep space.
- The payload also carried a canister filled with air, soil, water, bacterium, silkworm eggs, the seeds of a small flowering plant and a potato.
Why is this Moon landing so significant?
- Previous Moon missions have landed on the Earth-facing side, but this is the first attempt to explore the rugged far side from the surface.
- Landing on the far side isn’t fundamentally different to landing on the near side of the Moon. But it presents a communications challenge because there’s no direct line of sight to Earth.
