TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The first explorer robot to visit far side of the moon, Yutu-2 from China, found the large difference found there compared to the near side of the Moon from Earth. Including the difference is the soil is denser and stickier and more abundant in small rocks.
Although there have been a number of exploration missions to the Moon, both by robots and by manned missions, the far side of the Moon has not been revealed because of the difficulty of communicating with Earth from that side. Only in 2019, China’s Chang’e 4 mission sent Yutu-2 to explore the surface of the Moon which is still ‘virgin’ or untouched.
Recently, Liang Ding of the Robotics and Systems Laboratory at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, and his colleagues analyzed the content and properties of the lunar soil on the far side. They collected data from analyzing the way the Yutu-2 moved slowly over it and observations using radar and spectrometry tools.
They found Yutu-2 did not skid and skid as often as previously thought on the near side of the Moon. It is considered an indication that the surface of the Moon’s side is relatively flat compared to its near-Earth side. As Liang et al noted in a report published on January 19, 2022, the ground also appears to be more grippable by the robot’s six wheels, which means it is likely to be denser.
Not only is it useful for designing future lunar rover robots, understanding soil content and rock distribution can also reveal the history of the surface there. “Finding a greater proportion of small rock is likely correlated with an older surface age,” said Lionel Wilson of Lancaster University, UK.
The first two years of the Yutu-2 Robot’s mission also discovered a dark, greenish-colored material that glowed at the bottom of one crater, similar to the glassy material found in samples brought home by the Apollo missions. This is the first time one of these minerals, possibly remnants of an impact the Moon has experienced, has been found in-situ.
“Any information about the history of collisions, at any scale, from large objects to atomic size, is extremely important and valuable,” Wilson said.
The photo of the far side of the moon (left) appears to have more craters on its surface. areavoices.com
The far side of the Moon is also relatively electromagnetically quiet because it blocks transmission from Earth, which makes it a suitable location for astronomical research. However, building an observatory there would require in-depth knowledge of the soil’s content and surface, which could be explored in future missions.
“Exploration over far side of the moon It’s really very early days,” said Sara Russell of London’s Natural History Museum. “It’s like a whole new world to explore. This is very interesting.”
NEW SCIENTIST, SCIENCE.ORG
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