China blasts rocket to mysterious far side of the Moon where it hopes to collect samples for the first time
CHINA may have snuck a secret mini-rover onto the Chang'e-6 lunar rocket that is currently on its way to the far side of the Moon, new images reveal.Observers spotted a small, four-wheeled object strapped to the side of the lander in new images before take-off that was not previously disclosedhad disclosed that the spacecraft was to also carry with it payloads from France, Sweden, Italy and Pakistan to the Moon.
“That looks like a previously undisclosed mini rover on the side of the Chang’e-6 lander,” space reporter Andrew Jones, who closely monitors China’s space missions,But the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, which provided components for the mission, suggested that the undisclosed robot has an infrared imaging spectrometer.
It is expected to land in the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole, which is some 2,500km wide and up to 8km deep.
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