On Thursday, the head of the State Committee on Science, Technology and Industry Liu Jizhong announced that the lunar intelligence agency plans to plant the Chiang-4 probe on the far side of the moon in 2018.
The agency is also open to cooperation with other international space programs to launch a mission.
In May 2015, the National Space Administration of China announced for the first time its intention to explore the other side of the moon, promising to “choose the place that will be most difficult to land.” The far side of the moon, also known as the “dark side”, is never visible from Earth due to a phenomenon known as the tidal castle. The tidal forces of the Earth slow down the rotation of the Moon, so the Moon all the time faces one side of the Earth.
The reverse side of the Moon was first shown in 1959, when the Soviet spacecraft Luna-3 sent 17 photographs of Earth, which captured the highlands and craters.
To date, no spacecraft has landed on the far side of the moon.
