China’s Mysterious Discovery on the Moon Raises New Questions!

[00:00:00]New images from the Chang'e 4 mission have been released.

[00:00:04]They summarize more than 1 year of a mission on the dark side of the moon.

[00:00:09]The rover Yutu-2 has photographed the lunar surface and the lander.

[00:00:14]The Chinese space probe Chang'e 4 continues to explore the other side of the moon.

[00:00:20]Its lander and rover, called Yutu-2, took new pictures of the lunar surface.

[00:00:26]The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has created a database of the new images [music] that were immortalized during the mission.

[00:00:35]A success for China.

[00:00:37]This is another success for China.

[00:00:40]Although 2018 ended with the highest number of launches, 39, compared to the 31 American and 20 Russian, 2019 begins in an even more beautiful way because on this Thursday, January 3rd, a lander, a small [music] fixed station, and a rover, a robot vehicle, have just landed on the dark side of the moon.

[00:01:01]A significant world premiere that confirms both Beijing's ambitions and qualities in the field of space travel.

[00:01:08]Doug Ellison, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who worked on the cameras of the Mars rover Curiosity, used the images to create panoramic shots that also show the lander from the rover's perspective.

[00:01:24]China's lunar ambitions.

[00:01:27]Many moon orbits have shown that the two sides of the moon are very different.

[00:01:32]The nearer side has more relatively flat lunar seas, while the other side is densely covered with impact craters of different sizes.

[00:01:40]Scientists conclude that the moon's crust is much thicker on the far side than on the near side.

[00:01:46]However, reality is still a mystery, and only on-site exploration could reveal the secrets.

[00:01:53]For astronomers, the back of the moon is a place of ideal calm as the lunar body acts as a shield against radio interference from the Earth.

[00:02:01]From there, they could study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies and immerse themselves in the beginnings of the universe.

[00:02:09]The mission's reconnaissance vehicle carries two cameras, a German-built radiation experiment called LND, and a spectrometer that will take low-frequency radio astronomy images.

[00:02:21]The vehicle carries a panoramic camera, a radar to scan the lunar surface, an imaging spectrometer to identify minerals, and an experiment to study the interaction between the solar wind, a stream of particles [music] released by the Sun, and the lunar surface.

[00:02:37]Chang'e 4 is part of a larger moon exploration program in China.

[00:02:41]The first and second Chang'e missions were to collect data from orbit, while the third and fourth missions were built for operations on the surface of the Earth's satellite.

[00:02:51]The next missions, Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6, will aim to bring lunar rock and soil samples to Earth.

[00:02:59]Name origin.

[00:03:01]The vehicle, which is part of Chang'e 4 mission, named in Chinese mythology after the goddess of the moon, was launched on December 7th by a Long March 3B rocket from the launch center in Xichang in the southwest of the country.

[00:03:15]Since December 13th, it had been turning away from our natural satellite, in particular to verify that communications and data transfer with Earth were functioning properly.

[00:03:25]Now that it has landed, it will be able to begin its mission to study the still unexplored part of Selene and conduct scientific experiments.

[00:03:34]Strange substance discovered.

[00:03:37]Chinese researchers have published an analysis of gelatinous substance discovered by the moon rover Yutu 2 in a crater on the undiscovered side of the moon.

[00:03:47]After analyzing the images and comparing them with samples from the Apollo missions here on Earth, it is exactly what you would expect to find on the moon. Rock.

[00:03:57]Exactly. This is rock that has melted, probably in the heat of a meteor impact, to form a dark green, bright, glassy mass.

[00:04:06]The substance was first found at the end of July 2019 by the Chinese moon robot Yutu-2. [music] It was described as gelatinous, which is an unusual description for something found on the moon, since the lunar landscape is a very dry and dusty place.

[00:04:22]However, the glassy substance was somewhat more difficult to analyze, possibly because of the weak light.

[00:04:29]They could only distinguish plagioclases at a frequency of about 38%. It was not significantly different from the surrounding regolith, which suggests that the composition may be similar.

[00:04:40]The researchers were also able to determine that the material has a dark green color and measures about [music] 52 by 16 cm.

[00:04:48]In a research paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers from institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences described the substance as a dark greenish glowing impact melt breccia in the floor of the Von Kármán crater on the opposite side of the moon.

[00:05:05]It measures about 52 by 16 cm.

[00:05:09]Breccia is a type of rock that consists of angular mineral or rock fragments that are cemented together. Researchers compared the images taken by the moon rover with samples brought back from the moon by American Apollo missions.

[00:05:23]They found that the substance was similar to the Apollo samples, suggesting that it could be formed by a violent impact, for example, of a meteorite hitting the satellite. They said that the impact melted some lunar regoliths and breccias that formed the substance. Lunar regolith refers to the mixture of dust and crushed rock that covers the surface of the moon.

[00:05:45]Yutu-2 The Chinese lunar rover Yutu 2, also known as Jade Rabbit, traveled 447.68 m on the opposite side of the moon to scientifically explore the area after covering an additional distance of 27 m on its 17th lunar day.

[00:06:04]The research team used the lunar penetrator radar on Yutu 2 to transmit radio signals below the lunar surface to a depth of 40 m using a 500 MHz radio frequency channel, a depth three times greater than that previously reached by Chang'e 3, which was launched on the near side of the moon in late 2013.

[00:06:23][music] This data enabled researchers to develop an image of the underground stratigraphy on the dark side of the moon. The study was published in the latest issue of the journal Science Advances.

[00:06:37]The Chinese probe Chang'e 4, launched on December 8th, 2018, made the first soft landing >> [music] >> in the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at the far end of the moon on January 3rd, 2019. One lunar day is about 14 days on our Earth.

[00:06:54]A moon night has the same length.

[00:06:57]On the 17th lunar day, Yutu 2 continued its exploration northwest of the probe's landing site. During this exploration, it was able to collect many new scientific data. Yutu 2 worked much longer than its 3-month design life and became the most durable lunar rover on the moon.

[00:07:16]The Chinese open a new window to the universe.

[00:07:19]The two sides of the moon are very different.

[00:07:23]Because the side that is visible from the Earth has more layers.

[00:07:27]But the hidden side is densely covered with impact craters of different sizes.

[00:07:32]Scientists conclude that the moon's crust on the hidden side is much thicker than the crust on the visible side.

[00:07:38]For astronomers, the hidden side of the moon is a place of ideal calm.

[00:07:43]This is because the moon's body acts like a shield against radio interference from the Earth.

[00:07:48]For this reason, the evolution of stars and galaxies can be studied in this area of this natural satellite.

[00:07:55]This is explained by the CNSA on its website.

[00:07:59]From the panorama, we can see that the probe is surrounded by many small craters, which was really exciting.

[00:08:06]Furthermore, according to several Chinese media, the Chinese authorities consider the mission of Chang'e-4 probe a complete success.

[00:08:15]Now that the Chinese are on the dark side, they will be able to set up powerful antennas that will listen to space. Because on this side of the moon, we are protected from radio pollution from the Earth.

[00:08:26]In a way, they are opening a new window to the universe.

[00:08:30]Mission Chang'e-4 is also of geological interest.

[00:08:34]The space probe Chang'e-4, consisting of a lander and a rover, launched in early December of 2018, made a historic moon landing on the hidden side of the moon, whose surface had not been directly explored before, although it had been photographed in orbit. In the final and incredible image provided by the CNSA, the first footprints in history can be seen on the hidden side of the moon, created by the wheels of the Yutu-2 rover after it dismounted from the lander and traveled a few meters in the area of the crater of Carmen in the southern hemisphere of the hidden face of the moon about 10 hours after the landing of the spacecraft.

[00:09:12]China's lunar explorer Yutu-2 has helped scientists discover secrets buried deep under the surface on the other side of the moon, which may enrich mankind's understanding of the history of celestial collisions and volcanic activity, and shed new light on the geological evolution on the moon.

[00:09:30]>> The starting signal for the second race into space has been given. And while the USA was ultimately able to clearly win the first space race against the Soviet Union. These days, they seem to have fallen behind against the Chinese. As mentioned at the beginning, the Chinese lunar program to date resembles a celebrated intoxication, which reached its latest peak on June 25th, 2024.

[00:09:54]In fact, this was the day on which the sealed capsule of the Chang'e-6 mission landed in the steppes of Inner Mongolia and thus once again immortalized itself in the astronomical history books. After all, the capsule returned to Earth with almost 2 kg of rock samples from the far side of the moon, enabling experts on Earth to directly examine the material composition of this hidden area for the first time ever. Furthermore, the unprecedented samples could also help to crack some fundamental mysteries about the development of our constant companion. Because there is one thing we must not forget. Despite all the Apollo programs and subsequent research missions, the far side of our satellite has still hardly been explored.

[00:10:39]Specifically, no Apollo crew ever landed in this Earth-facing area. And the later soft, that is, unmanned moon landings also mainly focused on those regions that shine at us from the sky on clear full moon nights.

[00:10:53]And so it came to pass that it ultimately took until 2019 for humankind to finally bring one of its technical outposts to the far side of the moon.

[00:11:02]And after the Chinese probe Chang'e-4 had touched down there, it and its small rover granted us our first glimpse of the nature of the rock at the moon's south pole. But humanity would not be humanity if it were to simply rejoice collectively over the lunar milestones of its own kind. In fact, China's successes on the moon are also synonymous with the opening of a new competition between international space agencies. And when the question arose as to whether China's National Space Administration, or CNSA for short, could overtake NASA in the future. A certain Michio Kaku was consulted to give his assessment of the situation. As probably the most famous astronomical pop star of our time, the American theoretical physicist spoke to the US channel Fox Business Network after the globally acclaimed return of the moon samples by Chang'e 6. And he was quoted as follows, "China has been methodically copying the United States and the Russians for years. And in a few years, they could be competing with us to go back to the moon." In fact, some people think that by 2030, there could be land wars over the various regions of the moon. This is something we need to keep a very close eye on.

[00:12:15]The war for the moon properties.

[00:12:19]When asked whether the overarching goal was to establish a base at the moon's South Pole, Kaku replied as follows.

[00:12:26]"The Chinese have stated that they will bring their astronauts back to the moon by 2030. So, by 2030, we should also start to have a permanent presence on the moon. This is not meant as a war, however, because a rocket takes about 3 days to reach the moon from Earth."

[00:12:41]Smiles. "So, that's too long to wage a space war. But instead, there could be rival land claims, so-called property wars, when nations start dividing up the moon." In this context, Kaku also referred to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty because the question of who owns which area on the moon is not a new one. The aim of the said treaty was to prevent the occupation of celestial bodies by individual nations. Instead, the use of outer space was subjected to purely peaceful purposes and civilian space travel and space exploration were explicitly permitted to every state. As a result, neither nuclear weapons nor military bases may be placed in outer space. However, when it comes to the acquisition of property on the moon, the situation is far more complicated.

[00:13:30]According to Kaku, this is an open question that is not clearly regulated in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. No wonder, after all, in the 1960s, the construction of stations on other celestial bodies still seemed extremely futuristic. But now that the corresponding future is fast approaching, we would be well advised to find an overarching solution to this point of contention. But aside from all these political squabbles, there is also the potential for scientific knowledge.

[00:13:59]But according to Kaku, it is unlikely, to say the least, that US researchers will also get a glimpse of the moon samples collected by China. The reason why the relationship between the US and China is, in this respect, not so cordial is that the Chinese space agency is closely linked to the military. In this context, it is therefore extremely difficult for the United States to share space secrets if they are immediately passed on to the Chinese military.

[00:14:27]What Chang'e 6 discovered on the moon.

[00:14:31]But why is the division of the moon so important? Well, the fact that our satellite has not only come to the attention of research teams, but also of states and large corporations is primarily because it resembles a cosmic treasure trove of raw materials. In detail, our faithful companion contains a wealth of resources that are either rare on our planet or are gradually running out. These include elements such as neodymium and yttrium, which are essential for the production of cell phones and electric cars. But titanium, aluminum, and silicon also exist in abundance on the moon.

[00:15:07]The same applies to helium-3, an isotope that is extremely rare on Earth and could one day play a crucial role in clean energy production through nuclear fusion. And although nuclear fusion is still in its infancy, experts believe that helium 3 has the potential to supply the Earth with energy for centuries and is worth an estimated $4 billion per ton.

[00:15:30]But if we now take our minds off the lunar raw material mining of the future and instead take a look at the findings of the present, we realize that from a purely scientific point of view, these are no less valuable. After all, the samples collected by Chang'e 6 could also help us to crack the mystery of the different lunar hemispheres. While the moon always presents us with the same side due to its locked rotation, it also has two faces that could not be more different in terms of crust thickness, past volcanic activity, and composition.

[00:16:02]The Chang'e 6 samples could therefore hold the answer to the question of which geological processes are really responsible for the striking differences between the two halves of the moon. The side facing the Earth is not only characterized by a thin crust and the numerous maria, in other words, lowlands covered by solidified lava, but also by the fact that its rock contains an astonishingly high proportion of rare earth elements, potassium, phosphorus, and radioactive thorium. How this so-called creep terrain was formed and what triggered the volcanism on the near side of the moon is still hotly debated.

[00:16:39]While some researchers point to the tidal forces of the Earth, others consider it more likely that it was the result of a violent impact that also created the gigantic South Pole Aken Basin.

[00:16:50]Aside from the hemispheric riddle, the sample analyses could also benefit the construction of lunar stations because these would have to be built largely from the material available on the moon.

[00:17:02]How the regolith and the moon's rock can be converted into building material is already being tested in terrestrial research centers, as are the processes for extracting water, metals, and even oxygen.

[00:17:14]However, the bottom line is that Chang'e 6 turned out not only to be a diligent sample collector, but also a real stroke of luck for all particle researchers.

[00:17:24]The probe was also equipped with a detector developed by the ESA, the so-called negative ions at the lunar surface, or NILS for short. And as the name suggests, this component was specially designed to detect negative ions, and it finally succeeded in detecting them on the lunar surface for the first time. The reason for this becomes clear when we consider that the surface of the moon is virtually unprotected from cosmic radiation and solar wind. The incessant bombardment of particles, in turn, sets off electrochemical and photochemical reactions in the regolith, which, among other things, ionize molecules and atoms of the lunar material.

[00:18:04]In the past, space probes had already succeeded in detecting some of the ionized molecules in lunar orbit, but these were exclusively positively charged ions, which, compared to their negative counterparts, have a significantly longer lifespan and are therefore easier to detect. The discovery of negative ions on the lunar surface has opened a new window on a previously hidden component of the lunar plasma. According to experts, the corresponding observations can also help us to draw important conclusions about other celestial bodies without atmospheres. And if our channel has not yet been added to your subscription sphere, you're very welcome to change that now. Simply click the thumbs up and subscribe to never miss a new video from us again. We'll see you soon.