China and the moon

I haven't paid much attention to the Chinese space program, but actually, they are doing some complicated stuff.

See the First Panorama of the Far Side of the Moon, Captured by China’s Chang’e 4 Lander

China Is Launching Its Chang'e-5 Spacecraft to Get Some Moon Rocks of Its Own

Chang’e-5: Successful launch for the Chinese mission to land a piece of the Moon

They are essentially trying to emulate an Apollo mission, but without people. I'm very interested to see if they can pull it off.

China’s lunar-sampling robot has landed on the Moon

Apparently they can.

China's Chang'e-5 mission returns Moon samples

The Chinese have discovered that Africans visited the moon long before us, and left 'mystery huts.'

I think better reporting would have reduced your snark.

Chinese Rover Spots Unusual Glass Beads on Far Side of the Moon

Quote :

That Yutu-2 stumbled upon glass is hardly special, as the stuff is strewn across much of the Moon’s surface. What makes these particular objects unique is their large size and translucent nature. Lunar glass tends to be small, measuring less than 1 mm (0.04 inches), but Apollo astronauts did manage to spot some beads as large as these. The two globules in Von Kármán Crater are estimated to be between 0.5 and 1 inches (1.5 cm-2.5 cm) in diameter, hence their description as being “macroscopic” in size.

Wouldn't it be cool if the Chinese rover on the far side of the moon was able to photograph the crash of the Chinese rocket booster tomorrow afternoon?. I suspect the chance is slim-to-none, though, both because the distances involved are pretty vast (what are the chances) and there's no atmosphere to set the thing on fire as it comes down.  It'll probably be silent, invisible, and months before we find any evidence.

Quote :

China’s Chang’e 4 lander, which landed on the far side of the moon in 2019, is too far away to witness the spectacle.

Sigh.


By the way, I didn't intend to be snarky.  They really do look like pearls to me.