The far side of the moon is never visible to Earth because of gravitational forces and has never been explored by humans, Liu Jizhong, chief of the lunar exploration centre under China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said earlier.
With its special environment and complex geological history, the far side of the moon is a hot spot for scientific and space exploration.
The transmission channel is limited, and the landscape is rugged, so the Chang’e-4 mission will be more complicated than Chang’e-3, China’s first soft landing mission on the moon, which was completed in 2013, Liu Tongjie said.
The lander of Chang’e-4 will be equipped with descent and terrain cameras, and the rover will be equipped with a panoramic camera, he said.
Like China’s first lunar rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, carried by Chang’e-3, the rover of Chang’e-4 will carry subsurface penetrating radar to detect the near surface structure of the moon, and an infrared spectrometer to analyse the chemical composition of lunar samples.
“Since the far side of the moon is shielded from electromagnetic interference from the Earth, it’s an ideal place to research the space environment and solar bursts, and the probe can ‘listen’ to the deeper reaches of the cosmos,” Liu said.
“It’s in-depth, friendly and win-win international cooperation under the leadership of the CNSA,” said Liu.
The low-frequency radio spectrometer, developed in the Netherlands will be installed on Chang’e-4 relay satellite.
