While many eyes have turned to Mars or deeper into the galaxy, the Moon remains an essential destination for space exploration programmes. While Nasa’s most recent plans were scrapped in 2009, others are taking up the mantle. The Chinese launched a successful lunar exploration mission, Chang’e 3, in 2013 and are now determined to go back and discover the dark side by 2018.
China’s plan is to become the first country to “soft land” a probe on the far side of the Moon. Some might ask, why bother? In fact, the technology this would involve is intriguing. It will be far more advanced than having a human pilot a vehicle on to the surface or to simply crash a probe into it. Essentially, it will entail landing a remote object on the Moon when it is out of contact with mission control on Earth. Each advance such as this contributes to the sum of human knowledge that can inform other initiatives such as those of the UAE Space Agency.
