Researched
Far-Side & Polar Moon Landings
China's Chang'e-4 made the first far-side soft landing (3 January 2019); India's Chandrayaan-3 landed near the south pole on 23 August 2023, the first there.
Open in the interactive tree →Chang'e-4 touched down in Von Kármán crater, with the Queqiao relay satellite at the Earth-Moon L2 point passing signals to Earth. Chandrayaan-3 made India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon; its rover drove about 101 m and confirmed sulfur in the surface near the pole.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Chang'e-6 far-side samples2024Chang'e-4's far-side landing and relay satellite paved the way for Chang'e-6
- Permanent Moon Base2030s?