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China's ambitious space program will go where no other program has been developed: on the other side of the moon.
The lunar probe Chang & # 39; e-4 is due to be launched this month, reported the official media. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft – named after the mythical goddess of the Chinese moon – will land in a few weeks in the Aitken Basin on the Moon, where he will make images of surface and collect soil samples.
Landing in this unexplored region will allow the Chang-e-4 rover to better study the Moon and the space due to the lack of electromagnetic interference from the Earth. The rover is equipped with a low frequency radio spectrometer to help scientists understand "how the first stars ignited and how our cosmos came out of the dark after the Big Bang," according to Xinhua, the 39, official Chinese news agency.
The probe will also carry a tin can filled with potato seeds and Arabidopsis, a small plant related to cabbage and mustard, Xinhua reported. Scientists will check if plants can grow on the moon.
Chang & # 39; e-4 can also carry silkworm eggs to carry out the first biological experiment. None of the government agencies involved in the space program – including the State Administration for Science, Technology and the National Defense Industry; the National Space Administration of China; and China Space and Moon Exploration Division – detailed information on the launch of Chang-e-4
In May, China launched a transmission satellite called Queqiao , currently in orbit about 450,000 kilometers from Earth, where a gravitational balance can be maintained so that the equipment does not interfere and transmits messages from the mobile to the Earth.
The Chang & # 39; e program includes a series of probes that China has placed into orbit and The Chang & # 39; e-3, launched in 2013, and its Yutu rover, or Jade Rabbit, have studied geology and the natural resources of the moon after a soft landing.
The country also plans to launch its first spacecraft on Mars up to According to a technical report on China's space activities published in 2016, China plans to build its own space station by 2022, Xinhua added .
The country wishes to be one of the top three countries The global aerospace industry by 2030, said last year Wu Yanhua, deputy administrator of the Space Administration of China. According to Space Foundation Colorado Springs, Colorado, its space budget is about $ 8 billion a year, less than the United States.
NASA pursues the dual challenge of building a lunar orbital platform and its return. astronauts on the moon in the mid-2020s with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. The Mars InSight probe landed on the planet last month to study its interior and help answer questions about the origin of the solar system.
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