Space - Kina vil kikke på baksiden - De vil sikkert erklære det som kinesisk område - Curt Lewis

China Probe Set To Land On The Far Side Of The Moon A Chinese space probe is getting ready to be the first ever craft to land on the far side of the Moon, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The Chang'e 4 spacecraft started its planned elliptical lunar orbit this morning, coming as close as 15km to the surface. Chang'e has actually been in orbit around the Moon since December 12, but getting this precise route has taken two lots of manoeuvers over the last few weeks. Chinese mission control has also been testing the comms link between Chang'e 4 and the relay satellite Queqiao (Magpie Bridge) which is in orbit at the second Lagrangian point awaiting data from the probe and its surface rover. A three quarter moon photographed from Italy (Credit: Getty)GETTY Spacecraft have seen the far side of the Moon before, but no lander or rover has ever made it there. If Chang'e 4 is successful, the mission will be a first and a big step towards its ambitions to be on a par with the US and Russia in space exploration. China has made it clear it hopes to become a major space power by 2030. The science side of the mission includes astronomical observation of the Moon's terrain and mineral composition and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms of the environment on the far side of the Moon, according to the Chinese national space agency. Here on Earth, we only see one side of the Moon, because it's rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet. The other side, referred to as the far side or the dark side, is not actually in darkness at all, it's just uncharted from our perspective. Chang'e 4 aims to change that. The probe, lander and rover were launched by a Long March-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on December 8. The national space agency has not said when the Chang'e 4 aims to attempt the rover landing. But it said that it had "checked the imaging instruments and ranging detectors on the probe to prepare for the landing" and given that the craft is now in place, it's reasonable to assume that they will be trying soon.