Sunday 2 June 2024

China On The Dark Side Of The Moon

Space, it seems, is one the few times when we all come together and pool our resources so we have the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Ageny (CSA) and the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) teaming up on the James Webb Telescope and NASA and the ESA are cosying up for a joint trip to Neptune but China have yet to join the team and are doing their own thing on the dark side of the Moon.   
Their Chang'e-6 lunar probe has successfully landed on the far side of the Moon to collect soil and rock samples and bring them back to Earth for the first time.
'The mission involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty' said the the China National Space Administration, mainly due to the far side of the Moon having the mass of the moon between it and the mission staff on Earth which is why it has only been attempted once before and that was also China in 2019.
Every step is hopefully aiming towards putting people on moon again and China has joined relative newcomers in Japan and India to the space exploration game but China hopes to land a person on the moon before 2030 while America is planning to land its astronauts on the moon again in 2026.
While i understand countries wanting to do things for national pride and all that nonsense, if we could all just get together and pool our understanding and do more joint Space missions then we could broaden our knowledge and get where we want to get much quicker and safer.