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China Successfully Lands Spacecraft On Far Side of the Moon (cnbc.com)
State news agency Xinhua reports that China has successfully landed its Chang'e 4 spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Thursday morning, Beijing time, becoming the first country in history to touch the lunar surface unseen by those on Earth. CNBC reports: The Chang'e 4 mission launched in early December. It took the spacecraft three days to travel to the moon, where it spent the last few weeks in orbit preparing for touch down on the Von Karman crater. The crater is a relatively flat spot on the moon's far side. "China's Chang'e-4 probe softlands on Moon's far side," the state news agency tweeted on Thursday. Citing the China National Space Administration, Xinhua said the space probe, made up of a lander and a rover, "landed at the preselected landing area on the far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time."
Landing on the far side is a technical challenge, as there is no direct way to communicate with the spacecraft as it nears its target. China put a relay satellite in orbit around the moon in May to overcome that communication challenge. The far side of the moon has been seen and mapped before, even by astronauts of the Apollo missions. But the successful landing of Chang'e 4 represents the first time any spacecraft has touched down on the moon's far side.
Landing on the far side is a technical challenge, as there is no direct way to communicate with the spacecraft as it nears its target. China put a relay satellite in orbit around the moon in May to overcome that communication challenge. The far side of the moon has been seen and mapped before, even by astronauts of the Apollo missions. But the successful landing of Chang'e 4 represents the first time any spacecraft has touched down on the moon's far side.
You know, aside from me missing an 'n' in an 'an', its kind of ironic. Your sarcasm will be proven wrong, because it is, in point of fact, a seriously cool achievement for the Chinese.
Sure you can put a couple of guys on a bright side and have them jump around and collect rock samples (or maybe fake it in a studio depending on your vantage point), but to continue iterating on a closest celestial object we have to our point of origin and exploring sides unknown is a leap beyond technological - its a leap of purpose, a leap of faith that we don't generally associate with the Chinese.
You should all be concerned, because today, Chinese have truly surprised the American, and I'm impressed and annoyed at the same time.
If by affirmative action, you mean putting science-denying, religiously-bigoted, morally-bankrupted low-brows on the congressional science funding committees, then yes, affirmative action is more than likely responsible for the USA sliding into decline.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
It's a real shame that the US won't work with China. The ESA does, but NASA is barred from doing so and it's a loss for everyone.
In a way it might actually be for the best though. Everyone was kind of following the US lead for the longest time, but now have realized that the US isn't really committed and that there are other opportunities, other players, we are starting to see things move more quickly again.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
It's a real shame that the US won't work with China. The ESA does, but NASA is barred from doing so and it's a loss for everyone.
In a way it might actually be for the best though. Everyone was kind of following the US lead for the longest time, but now have realized that the US isn't really committed and that there are other opportunities, other players, we are starting to see things move more quickly again.
Space exploration (and science in general) is more political in the US than most other countries. Cooperating with the US on long term missions can be tricky because potentially every 4 years you have a new executive leader in charge and the executive leader is for some reason in charge of what scientific missions can and will be done and can tear up past agreements and contracts.
Although usually the West more aligns politically and socially with the US, and so the US ideally would be the science partner for the West- the political instability of American Science funding being tied to which political party is in charge might mean China is a better (more stable) partner for long term science cooperations despite their messed up political and social systems.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Americans take on big challenges, because they are big challenges. For example, Americans were the first to fly around the world, the first to fly around the world non-stop, the first to fly around the world in a balloon, etc. Why? What's the urgent practical need to do these things?
There is no practical need. As Kennedy said, we do these things because they are hard. China doesn't. That's not part of Chinese culture. China is known for making a million copies of something that the US designed a decade before. Americans traditionally look at something that "can't be done" and try to figure out how to do it. Chinese study the company procedure to see exactly how a task is done, in detail.
The most important thing here is not that Chia succeeded in this attempt, but that they attempted it. There is no immediate need to do this, they did it simply because it is hard. That demonstrates a new attitude in China. It shows the "American spirit", the spirit of bold adventure, in China.
Americans drive to "to boldly go where no one has gone before" has been significant factor in their success over the last hundred years, a differentiator from from most nation's. (Though partly inherited from Europe, then grown and expanded in the US). To see that in China means things are changing. China is getting something that used to be one of the great advantages of the United States.