Preface
There has always been a question that has always puzzled mankind, what is the far side of the moon? As we all know, due to the gravitational attraction of the earth and the moon, the moon always has only one side facing the earth, and although we on the earth know that the moon is always revolving around the earth, we can only see the side facing us.
And human beings are inherently interested in the unknown, since they can't be observed, then guess, as a result, many Pegasus starry sky ideas were born, what is the back of the moon There are remnants of alien civilizations, there are signal towers that receive signals, etc., the most outrageous thing is that some people guess that there are likely to be aliens living on the far side of the moon, and there are alien bases and the like.
It was not until 1968 when Apollo 8 successfully completed its mission to orbit the moon that humans directly observed the far side of the moon with their eyes, and the results went without saying that no extraterrestrial relics were found, only a large number of undulating impact craters showed how many extraterrestrial impacts the moon had blocked for the earth, and it seemed that it had always adhered to the task of "guarding" the earth.
Although it is no longer difficult to observe the far side of the moon with the current level of aviation, no country has been able to successfully land its own spacecraft on the far side of the moon until 2019, when China's Chang'e-4 probe carried the Yutu-2 lunar rover completed the first landing on the far side of the moon.
This time, Chang'e-6 landed on the far side of the moon again, and successfully completed the mission of lunar soil collection, originally such a feat attracted the attention of the world, but I did not expect that because the landing site with a deviation of nearly 17 kilometers is nearly 46 times worse than India, it has been questioned a lot, and there are even voices questioning the "defects" in our space technology, so what is the real situation?
01
When it comes to India, the first thing that comes to mind for many people is a "hanging" country, and it seems that they want to compare with us in everything except bragging, but due to the special social environment, India seems to be a relatively backward country in many people's psychology.
In fact, although the gap between the rich and the poor in India is too large, to a certain extent, India's scientific and technological level is not backward, and even such a top technology as space exploration, India can also occupy a place in the world field, and even as early as the 60s of the last century, when the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was lively, India's space research has been put on the agenda.
In fact, Chandrayaan-3 is already the probe of India's third mission to the moon, and its predecessor, Chandrayaan-2, unfortunately crashed, but fortunately, Chandrayaan-3 was ashamed of its predecessors and successfully landed on the surface of the moon on August 23, 2023, making India the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the moon.
We all know how difficult it is to send a probe to the moon, and after years of hard work, various aviation powers have been able to achieve relatively accurate control of the landing position, India's Chandrayaan-3 landing deviation is only about 360 meters, and even Apollo 12 55 years ago can control the landing accuracy within 160 meters.
In fact, this is not the first time that some people have questioned the accuracy of Chinese probes, as early as when Chang'e-5 landed on the moon, it was questioned because of the deviation of 2.33 kilometers, but this did not delay us from completing the drilling, sampling and packaging of lunar soil from the front of the moon.
Finally, after a lapse of four and a half years, our Chang'e-6 landed on the moon again, but this time it was much more difficult than before, because the destination was the far side of the moon, and any unknown unexpected situation would interfere with the landing, but fortunately, after hard work, Chang'e-6 finally successfully completed the landing.
Judging from the photos sent back by Chang'e-6, the word "China" clearly catches the eye, which seems to be to confirm another major progress of the mainland in the field of lunar exploration, but some foreign netizens with ulterior motives are not focused on this, but through the difference in longitude and latitude between the pre-selected landing site of Chang'e-6 and the actual landing site, a deviation of nearly 17 kilometers has been calculated.
Does the deviation of the landing site prove that our aviation technology is inferior to India's? Of course not, in fact, judging from the development of aviation in recent years, our aviation technology has long been on the first echelon of the world, if India's technology is really stronger than ours, then they should be the first to land on the far side of the moon.
02
The reason why we don't pay so much attention to the landing accuracy of the probe is that we are very clear about our goals, after all, there are no technical barriers to landing, and instead of spending a lot of effort to get the landing accuracy, it is better to tilt more resources into the exploration of the moon itself.
And we must know that our goal is the far side of the moon, because there is no experience to learn from, we can only move forward through our own exploration, the sun in the space area on the far side of the moon is not the same as the front side of the moon, so scientists need to constantly adjust the direction of Chang'e-6, and even the flight trajectory may need to be redesigned, this series of problems is the real need to solve.
Another important factor is the difference in aviation technology between countries, the reason why India's Chandrayaan-3 was able to achieve relatively accurate landing is because they use a technology called "relative terrain navigation technology", which uses image recognition and comparison, and can indeed achieve higher landing accuracy.
But this technology is not without problems, India's success has a large degree of luck component bonus, many countries in the world have also conducted research on this technology, and the final answer is that the reliability is not yet fully verified, and there are many problems encountered in the experimental process, so the application should be combined with the actual situation.
The first task of our Chang'e-6 is to successfully land on the far side of the moon and bring back precious lunar soil samples from it, so the accuracy of the landing is not the most important, as long as the successful landing is within the planned range, the deviation of only ten kilometers will not have the slightest impact on the entire lunar landing program.
03
Originally, we successfully landed on the far side of the moon and became the first country in the world, such an achievement is undoubted, others grasp some points that should not be taken seriously malicious ridicule, in fact, they are still unwilling to admit that the development of our aviation industry has reached the point where it can not be ignored, but not all countries have the same idea.
It is important to know that the mission plan of Chang'e-6 is to go to the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon to carry out topography exploration and geological background survey, and to discover and collect lunar samples from different regions and different ages. When such a plan was learned of by countries around the world, many countries and organizations sent their intentions to cooperate.
Therefore, in order to enhance international cooperation, the Chang'e-6 lunar mission has reached close cooperation with France, ESA, Italy, Pakistan, etc., so there are still many countries that are very optimistic about our aviation industry.
As for those voices of doubt and ridicule, we will eventually be impressed by our strength, and let them know that we never do things by words, but with practical actions to prove how ridiculous the ignorance of the other party is.
epilogue
In the field of space exploration around the world, we have always adhered to an open and inclusive mentality, hoping to lead all mankind to break through the "shackles" of the earth, but we also have to admit that this is not an overnight dream, even if the technology is limited, even if the road is bumpy, as long as the dream in our hearts is not extinguished, our pace of progress will never stop.
Sources of information:
The information in this article comes from the Beijing Daily client 2024-06-03 "Chang'e-6 landed on the back of the moon, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: A historic step in China's outer space exploration"; Beiqing.com2024-06-02"What is the difficulty of Chang'e-6's landing on the moon this time? There are still these details behind it→" and other official media news, but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be polished, please read sensibly, for reference only!