The ambassador expressed hope that the dazzling achievement would provide the global community with the grounds for further discovery of the planet and using the knowledge for peaceful purposes.
China's robotic Chang'e 4 mission touched down on the floor of the 186-kilometers—wide Von Kármán Crater Wednesday night (Jan. 2), pulling off the first-ever soft landing on the mysterious lunar far side.
Chang'e 4 will perform a variety of scientific work over the coming months, potentially helping scientists better understand the structure, formation and evolution of Earth's natural satellite. But the symbolic pull of the mission will resonate more with the masses: The list of unexplored locales in our solar system just got a little shorter.
The lander will be able to characterize its surroundings in great detail, probing the composition of the surface as well as the layered structure of the ground beneath the lander's feet. Such observations could help researchers better understand why the lunar near and far sides are so different.
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