China’s Chang’e-6 on June 25 became the world’s first spacecraft to bring back samples from the part of the Moon that the Earth never gets to see.
Key facts
- Chang’e-6 is the first mission in human history to return samples from the far side of the moon.
- Examining the samples from the far side can help scientists solve mysteries about the origin and evolution of the Moon.
- The Moon’s far side is often referred to as the dark side because it cannot be seen from the Earth, not because it does not catch the Sun’s rays.
- The Moon is tidally locked with the Earth and therefore, we see only one side of the Moon, also known as the near side.
- The Chang’e-6 was a 53-day-long mission. After reaching the Moon’s orbit, the mission’s orbiter circled the natural satellite while its lander descended into the 2,500-kilometre-wide South Pole-Aitken basin on the lunar surface.
- China is the only country to achieve a soft-landing on the far side of the Moon.
- In 2019, its Chang’e-4 mission landed on the region and explored the Moon’s Von Karman crater with the help of a rover.
