China will soon visit uncharted territory on the Moon

China promises to enter in the history of space exploration, so to speak. In December, the country will launch the first ever device to the dark side of the moon. Another device which will go to the moon in 2019, will return lunar samples to Earth for the first time since 1976. These two missions are in the forefront of interest in the development of our nearest celestial body. The Indian Space Agency, as well as private companies in Israel and Germany also rely on robotic lunar mission in 2019. The US plans to bring astronauts to the moon orbit in 2023, and drop them on the lunar surface by the end of the 2020s.

Despite decades of research, the only natural satellite of the Earth still holds many secrets about its formation, as well as clues to the history of the solar system. "Too many things that we do not know," says planetary scientist Xiao Long of China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. In June and July, he published a paper in which he described the landing site of the new Chinese missions "Chang'e" 4 and 5.

China wants the moon

To find out what secrets keeps the moon, scientists want to get their hands on new rock samples. Mission to return samples of "Chang'e-5" undoubtedly allow them to see patterns that no one has ever seen. "If you go to Earth and land in the UK, you will not be able to draw conclusions about the entire planet, based on what they saw in the UK," the researchers note.

This time, China is exploring the lunar regions, which no one has ever studied. "Chang'e-4" is aimed at the largest, deepest and oldest known detail of the surface of the moon - pool of the South Pole-Aitken created by the fall of a celestial body. Its width is 2,500 km, and the depth to 8, 2 kilometers. The crater is too big for the study of the forces of the rover. Therefore, the "Chang'e-4" will go to 186-kilometer crater von Karman, who is in the large pool.

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