On July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong set his feet on the surface of the Moon, marking the mankind's first physical contact with the Earth's only permanent natural satellite.
The Moon has been a subject of great interest from not only the U.S. but also many others in the world.
In April, NASA announced its lunar program "Artemis" to land humans on the Moon's South Pole by 2024. The space agency unveiled two phases of the program – landing astronauts on the Moon in five years, and establishing a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028.
India is also pursuing the goal of exploring the Moon. The country launched "Chandrayaan-1" probe in its first lunar mission in 2008. The probe did not land on the Moon but carried out a search for water using radar.
India will launch its second lunar mission, landing "Chandrayaan-2" probe on the Moon, scheduled on July 22, 2019 after a planned launch was called off due to a "technical snag" on July 15.
China opens new chapter of human lunar exploration
China has made an indelible mark in human history for exploring the Moon as its self-developed lunar probe Chang'e-4 made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the celestial body on January 3 this year.
Besides the first soft-landing, the mission also achieved other "firsts" like realizing the relay communication between the Moon's far side and the Earth, a close-up view of the Moon's far side, and hence opening a new chapter of human lunar exploration.
Let's take a look back at the major steps that Chang'e-4 probe has taken yet toward China's ambitious lunar exploration.
Since the launch of the lunar exploration project, China has followed the three phases of "orbiting," "landing," and "return."
China's lunar exploration is far to draw a full stop after the successful Chang'e-4 mission, and more can be expected from the Chang'e family.
Chang'e-5 probe is going to be launched by the end of this year to bring samples from the Moon, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Chang'e-6 probe plans to go to the South Pole of the Moon to take samples. Chang'e-7 probe will conduct a comprehensive exploration of the Moon's topography, material composition and space environment at the South Pole.
In addition to continuing scientific exploration experiments, Chang'e-8 probe will also carry out experiments on some key technologies to see the possibility to build houses on the Moon using lunar soil by 3D printing technology, for jointly building a lunar research base in the future with other countries.
A brief introduction to the Moon
