"Zhang 4" … China behind the moon

The final preparations for the launch of the Chang-4 vehicle are over, announced Friday the official German news agency. The vehicle was launched during a trip called "Beyond the Moon" yesterday, from a spaceport in Xichang City, in western China, at 3:00 pm GMT, announced a source of the official Chinese space program. If the mission succeeds, China will land for the first time on the moon. The Chang4 has been connected to a modern robot located at the south pole of the satellite, whose task will be to discover precisely the surface of the moon. "Nobody has ever done this before, and it will be important," said Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's official space program. The name "Chang" comes from the designation based on the moon in one of the ancient Chinese myths.

Technical challenges
Scientists point out that the rotation of the moon is a "restricted rotation". We, Earthlings, only see 59% of the moon, while 41% are hidden. On October 7, 1959, the Soviet Luna 3 sent 29 images of the hidden face of the moon, which we do not see from Earth. Oyang Ziyuan said the biggest technical challenge of the mission was the difficulty of communication between the vehicle in the space and the ground control center. In May, China launched a satellite that would serve as a link between Chang4 and the Earth Control Center to facilitate communication. There are natural seeds aboard the Chang4, as it will be checked if the vegetables are cultivable in closed houses on the moon.

Pick up the rocks and send them back
While other countries are cutting back on their space programs, China is looking for ambitious plans to invade space. China is not only planning to set up a private space station, but to explore other mysterious things on the moon. After landing on the moon, the craft will collect all the rocks for a return to Earth next year. According to Chinese plans, the first Chinese will land on the moon by 2030.

Several countries have sent a spaceship to the moon. The Soviet Union made its first landing on the moon in 1959 with the very fast landing of the Luna 2 probe on the moon, a feat reiterated in 1962 by the Americans with the Ranger 4 probe. Cold War, the race for the moon with special abilities was one of the most important aspects of the space race. To get to the moon, the spacecraft must first come out of the earth's gravity field, the only practical way to achieve this is to use a rocket. Unlike other air vehicles such as balloons or jet planes, the rocket is a known form of payment. May continue to increase its high altitude velocity in the space outside the Earth 's atmosphere.

(New Arab)