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China Set To Launch First-Ever Spacecraft to the Far Side of the Moon, Will Attempt To Grow Plant There (scientificamerican.com)
AmiMoJo writes: Later this week, China plans to launch its Chang'e-4 spacecraft to the far side of the lunar surface. The aim is to land a rover on the dark side of the moon for the first time. Blocked from direct communication with the Earth, the lander and rover will depend on China's Queqiao communication satellite launched in May. If the landing is successful, the mission's main job will be to investigate this side of the lunar surface, which is peppered with many small craters. The lander will also conduct the first radio astronomy experiments from the far side of the Moon -- and the first investigations to see whether plants will grow in the low-gravity lunar environment.
The ultimate goal of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) is to create a Moon base for future human exploration there, although it has not announced when that might happen. Chang'e-4 will be the country's second craft to 'soft' land on the lunar surface, following Chang'e-3's touchdown in 2013.
The ultimate goal of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) is to create a Moon base for future human exploration there, although it has not announced when that might happen. Chang'e-4 will be the country's second craft to 'soft' land on the lunar surface, following Chang'e-3's touchdown in 2013.
How will it grow with no sunlight?
No sig today...
No way they'll succeed. The secret moon base on the far side of the moon will blow up that spacecraft before it gets close. Gotta make it look like an accident though!
Your ad here. Ask me how!
They're planning on growing the same plant they were smoking when they came up with this idea.
Please don't call it the dark side. It's just the side that we can't see from Earth.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
First time in quite a while with a story about the far side of the Moon and not the "dark side" of the Moon.
Good job, you guys appear to be actually learning!
Hopefully this will start a new space race, and focus the US on kicking ass in space. We're the only ones to successfully land on Mars, but we shouldn't get lazy and stop boldly going where... Dammit. ST:TNG marathon is what I'll be doing now.
Why is a flat earth MORON writing SCIENCE stories for Slashdot ?!?!
Should they manage to spot any stars from there, somebody's gonna be in deep shit. ;-)
If they're planing on the Darkside of the Moon, I think it should be marijuana. You can't really get into the Darkside of the Moon without some pot.
Just say'in.
And I didn't realize that Pink Floyd was that big in China.
it's going to need fertiliser.
Not Apollo 8?
The far side of the moon is where Sam Bell's clones are mining helium-3. It's already been claimed.
Better known as 318230.
Remember when they used to try to have all spacecraft clean of biological components that might infect new worlds? Now we're going to bring plants there? I hope someone has figured out the environmental impact to the planet!
Since China has already built islands that became military outposts, I'd expect this "farm" to become a military outpost, too.
First the Spratly Islands... now the Moon. Silly Americans will now build a "Space Force" to taunt Chinese scientists at their new base^H^H^H^H research facility.
Time to move my supervillain moon base. All volcanic islands are already taken. Any ideas?
If there's no communication with the far side of the moon, how will they know if the plant is growing?
Send out some auditors? A "take my word for it" kind of thing?
You know what they're really up to... after all the moon has been theirs since ancient times.
There are easier places on Earth to grow pot.
Right now would be a lovely time for someone to discover an alien spacecraft sitting on the farside of the Moon.
Hilarious! The basic idea is funny (China growing pot on the moon), and the execution ("There are easier places") really brings out the humor. It reminds me of the hilarious non-sequiturs spewed out by homeless people begging for spare change.
I'm sure when you talk to your friends, co-workers, wife, and children (and perhaps several girlfriends on the side?) this will get a marvelous laugh out of them. Thanks for sharing!
Definitely Bamboo
Friar Reimer! How would YOU know!
of the Dark side of the moon so that we could see what it looks like. https://www.google.com/search?...:
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
You must be Chinese.
The first picture sent back by the Chinese lander will contain a sign reading "This spot reserved for Elon Musk's Tesla" and a set of tire tracks going to the horizon.
(yes I know the Roadster was not sent to the Moon...)
Seems like a long way to go just to grow some pot. Should just come over to Canada where it's legal now.
I can't speak for Friar Reimer (whoever the fuck that is). But I have some personal experience in running a grow operation in Oregon.
It will be harder for anyone to spy on a base on the far side of the moon and doing so would come at a higher cost.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
FAKE FAKE FAKE. The Chinks just cant help themselved.. all they know how to do is lie and commit forgery.
Grow a plant means what? There will be a source of light provided, in an air-contained container with water and nutrients? Wow. Not impressed at all.
Or are they going to grow a virus? Not impressed also.
Given that this generation is into sensationalism without substance, just wait 12 months and this will be forgotten and denied ever having occurred. Just like NASA's ( Nerds Assuming Stupid Assumptions) discovering aliens. Or an Elon Musk dope-smoked statement, pick any.
Jesus Christ youre a fucking mong. Never reproduce!
Oh please, we all know that their REAL missions is to make contact with the secret Nazi base built on the dark side of the moon.
I mean, hasn't anyone watched Iron Sky?
No, I wrote duck. Like, fuck the duck. Asshole.
Still think you're replying to creimer? Sad. Fucking sad.
Matter of fact, it's all dark.
Explain how you come to that conclusion.... why do you think that the far side of the moon would be any harder to spy on than the near side? What about the far side of the moon makes it any more difficult for satellites to fly over?
Or do you somehow think that we'd ordinarily try and monitor things on the lunar surface from the ground here on earth using optical telescopes or something?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When you said duck, I wondered if you meen Freedonia!
Wikipedia says this about "Duck Soup": The wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial aid. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to annex the country.
whoosh, asshole.
hehe, you really captured the essence of the creimer non sequitur
That doesn't mean that the original post made much sense though. I'm not sure what kind of secret activities you'd conduct on the moon that you couldn't just as well conduct in a secret lab on earth.
Obviously, but even putting that aside, it still makes no sense at all how having something on the far side would supposedly make it any more difficult to spy on it than something on the near side.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Obviously, but even putting that aside, it still makes no sense at all how having something on the far side would supposedly make it any more difficult to spy on it than something on the near side.
Well the comment about secret bases on the moon was tongue in cheek based on the cliché of secret moon bases... but absolutely it would be much harder to spy on.
The US has a space spy plane that is capable of going beyond the moon but no one else does. There are no satellites or any other space craft that come with in line-of-sight of the far side (and even other electromagnetic signals would be harder to spy on due to the mass of the moon). The near side of the moon can easily be spied upon by satellites from any number of countries without even standing out.
Any intention to spy on the far side of the moon by anyone other than the US space plane, which presumably has other missions to conduct, would involve building and launching a craft to do so at considerable expense.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
> The US has a space spy plane that is capable of going beyond the moon but no one else does.
Uh... citation?
My argument is that any intention to spy on even the *NEAR* side of the moon would involve no less of an expense, and so putting a base on the far side would not pose any greater of a barrier than any other situated lunar base.
It's not like you can spy on the moon from the ground or hell, even in earth orbit.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My argument is that any intention to spy on even the *NEAR* side of the moon would involve no less of an expense, and so putting a base on the far side would not pose any greater of a barrier than any other situated lunar base.
It's not like you can spy on the moon from the ground or hell, even in earth orbit.
I think you're highly underestimating technology, and it depends on the level of spying that is involved. It's much cheaper and easier to put a satellite in orbit around the earth than around the moon. With no atmosphere around the moon and a powerful lense from an earth orbiting satellite you could definitely see basic structures being built, maybe judge activity too and fro the building (which buildings are being docked with), you could monitor for electro magnetic signals. A lot of this could probably be done with existing satellites in orbit.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
> The US has a space spy plane that is capable of going beyond the moon but no one else does.
Uh... citation?
There's this little thing called google that was invented a few years ago... this isn't exactly secret knowledge (google or the spy plane) - how about you give it a try?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Yeah, I Googled "space spy plane that is capable of going beyond the moon" and came up with zilch.
Maybe you could meet the burden of proof and tell us exactly what the fuck you're talking about??
I think you are overestimating optical acuity.
The absolute *maximum* that we could resolve even from very high earth orbit is at best something that is no smaller than about 50 meters or so on the moon... and even then, it would be just a single pixel in size using even the most powerful telescopes that we have today. The only practical way to resolve any appreciable amount of detail that would be required to effectively do any spying on what is happening on the moon is at best from lunar orbit.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
And I think it's important to point out that this limit is not technological but physical. At a certain resolution you start running into Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which causes refraction to increase as you focus more precise.