Landing on the Dark Side... ...Of the Moon

A few minutes before 2:30am tonight, a Chinese lunar explorer named Chang'e 4 landed on the dark side of the moon.

The Aitken Basin
(Credit: Apollo Image Archive)

To be fair, it's not the first time that we have planned missions to the dark size of the moon. We've seen it! But, never have scientists landed on that side that faces away from Earth. With one probable reason being that it is one of the most difficult places to communicate with due to the dark side pointing away from Earth. And... The moon's mass blocking any radio signals.

Chang'e 4 which is just a probe that contains both a lander and a rover left Earth on the 8th of December last year. To battle with the possible problems of communicating, a satellite was sent into the moon's orbit to act as a link. At the time of launch, the Chinese media were saying that area targeted was the Aitken Basin. The Aitken Basin is an impact crater on the dark side of the moon which scientist refer to as the South Pole of the moon. It's not just an impact crater though - Aitken Basin is one of the largest impact craters in our solar system. 

At Aitken Basin, 10 experiments have been planned to commence. Six of these will be done by the Chinese who've organised the landing whilst the other 4 experiments will be completed by other countries. Personally, I love how one of these experiments will be involving the planting of potatoes and seeds.

The Phases of the Moon
(Credit: HowStuffWorks.com)

Now, throughout this blog post, I understand that some people might been rolling their eyes at the term - the dark side of the moon (Unless you enjoy a bit of Pink Floyd in your free time). It just the descriptive nature which can be unsettling for scientists. Almost suggesting that it's constantly shadowy. Or that there is a drawn in line across the surface of the moon which divides our rocky natural satellite in two and by stepping over you'll pass into the side which never faces the Earth... 

If only science was so simple.
Like Earth, the moon has a day time and night time. You could stand in one place and watch the sun rise then eventually set. So what does this information have to do with the side of the moon that we see?

This bit is confusing. We see both... The day side sometimes and the night side in other times. It more scientifically accurate to say we are seeing the most nearest side of the moon - the one which faces us. 

Little side fact - Do you ever feel like the days are getting longer?

What if I told you that they were... Just very, very slowly. The moon's gravitational pull is affecting Earth. In around a billion years time, the Earth's rotation will match the time at which that moon orbits Earth. Though the two would be drifted away by then. Meaning that it'll take 40 days for the moon to complete one orbit of the Earth. Therefore in the future, one day will be 40x as long as the ones that we are used to... Just been glad that you won't ever experience it. 

So there is sadly no dark side of the moon. There is only the far side of the moon which the Chinese have today landed on it. When I researched this, one of the website articles that I used - Jonathon Strickland's article on HowStuffWorks.com wrote that it would be years before engineers could figure out a way to get past the communication barrier. Well he was right, that article was written in 2008. But... It was only 8 years ago (less than that considering it was written in May). I wonder how long Jonathon Strickland thought that it would take. 

I don't know what you as the reader is thinking. But for me, this just seems like such an interesting time for space science. Especially after NASA's New Horizon news on Tuesday which I wrote about just the other day. And today, I come into work this morning and read that there had been this moon landing on the side which doesn't face us - isn't that not interesting?!

Even though it been a good 49 years since the first lunar landing, which happened on the 20th of July 1969 (50 years this year!). We, as scientists, still don't know what is there on the dark side. So, this landing today could open a new chapter in our knowledge of the moon.