Chang'e 4 — the far side of the Moon

2019: the first landing on the hidden side

One side of the Moon can never be seen from Earth. In 2019 China's Chang'e 4 became the first spacecraft to land on that hidden side! From there you can't send a signal straight to Earth — so a helper satellite called Queqiao ('Magpie Bridge') was launched first. The little rover Yutu-2 ('Jade Rabbit') is still driving around there!

Chang'e 4 landed on 3 January 2019 in Von Kármán crater on the Moon's far side (inside the South Pole–Aitken basin — one of the largest and oldest impact basins in the Solar System, 2,500 km). Since the far side is never visible from Earth, communication goes through the Queqiao relay satellite at the L2 Lagrange point. The Yutu-2 rover (140 kg) has driven over 1.5 km, probed 40 m below the surface with radar and found traces of mantle rock (olivine, pyroxene). On board, a cotton seed sprouted — the first plant grown on the Moon (for one night). The far side has a thick crust and few maria — an asymmetry still not fully explained.

Fun facts

• The far side isn't the 'dark side' — it gets just as much sunlight as the near side.
• Chang'e is the Moon goddess of Chinese legend; Yutu is her jade rabbit.
• The far side has almost no maria — it looks like a different world.