Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Chang'e-6: Moon dark side samples collected and launched into lunar orbit (spacenews.com)
84 points by bookofjoe 10 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 43 comments



"Dark side" is a misnomer if anyone doesn't know this. The Moon is tide-locked to Earth which means the same side always faces us, but it's not tide-locked to the Sun. The dark side gets plenty of sunlight.

A lot of folks don't realize how unusual Luna is. The Earth has a gigantic satellite relative to its own size, and this might be part of what makes our planet so habitable. It does a number of things: tides, climate stability, and catching or deflecting extinction-level-event objects that would otherwise hit Earth. Earth would almost certainly still be a habitable planet without it but maybe not as stable.


It's not a misnomer. "Dark" has multiple senses. In this case, it's "unknown, hidden, mysterious, secret".

> The hemisphere has sometimes been called the "dark side of the Moon", where "dark" means "unknown" instead of "lacking sunlight"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

More examples:

- Dark matter

- Dark continent

- Dark knight

- Dark web


Interesting. In my mother tongue it's called "back side" instead of "dark side". Looks like that "back side" is a more correct term for that.


Back side is much more correct but in colloquial English it sounds like you’re talking about the Moon’s butt. This would also mean if the Moon lost its tide lock and spun around it would be Mooning us.

Dark side sounds cooler and more mysterious.


Orbiting planets be like, "Dang, look at the moon's back side."


As I understand it, the term was originally "radio-dark side", and was used to explain the signal blackouts during Apollo lunar orbits to the public.


It also could be dark in the "unknown" sense, not literally.

Before getting pedantic with the dark side of the Moon, English academics should first fix why you can "drink a drink" but you can't "food a food", that's making my English lessons hard.


> "Dark side" is a misnomer if anyone doesn't know this.

This guy probably does... now:

https://x.com/3c3p3d/status/1782753666488774697


I mean he completely understood when they said far side to us, so he has never heard it called "dark side" before.


Literal quote, starting at 00:07: "They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side that's always in dark."


In French, it is called the "hidden face of the Moon", obviously because we cannot see it from the Earth point of view.


There is no darkside of a moon really,

matter of fact its all dark.


You'd think spacenews.com could get that right: was it really in their title before?


See also: '3-Body Problem'


We'll be covering this in detail in this week's Orbital Index. https://orbitalindex.com

One thing that's unusual about this mission is that it required a loitering communication satellite orbiting beyond the far side of the Moon to relay communications to Earth. https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2024-03-13-Issue-260


Title of TFA is “Chang’e-6: Moon samples collected and launched into lunar orbit”


For those not following this story, the original headline would seem "meh, nothing to see here."


China is so much ahead of everyone else in tech, space and automation. It's not funny anymore.


China's progress and this accomplishment are very impressive, the more the merrier. But NASA does have two nuclear powered humvees driving on Mars at the moment.


And until recently, a helicopter :)


In the space industry, the US is so much ahead of everyone else. SpaceX is the long pole in the tent, but there are many other startups doing cool stuff.


Despite advancements, China still relies on key technologies from other countries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, where the U.S., Taiwan, and South Korea are leaders.

The U.S. and other countries maintain a strong lead in original innovation, with Silicon Valley and other tech hubs producing groundbreaking technologies and startups.

While China has made significant progress, the U.S. (through NASA and private companies like SpaceX) has more extensive and diverse achievements in space, including reusable rockets and plans for Mars colonization.

Countries like Japan and Germany are leaders in robotics and automation technologies, with advanced systems and innovations that often surpass those of China.

China faces criticism for intellectual property theft and lack of respect for IP laws, which undermines perceptions of its technological advancements.

Although China produces a high volume of research, the quality and global impact of research from the U.S. and Europe are often considered higher.


Don't the US and Europe also rely on key technologies from other countries?


Yes, but the claim is not "US and Europe is so much ahead of everyone else in tech, space and automation that it's not funny anymore" but that China is. So, while the answer to your question is "of course" it's not relevant to the claim.


shhhhh! China bad, USA good


> Despite advancements, China still relies on key technologies from other countries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, where the U.S., Taiwan, and South Korea are leaders.

Doesn't the US (and most of the world) rely on Taiwan for semiconductors as well?

> The U.S. and other countries maintain a strong lead in original innovation, with Silicon Valley and other tech hubs producing groundbreaking technologies and startups.

There's nothing like WeChat in the west yet. I'm not sure this strong lead is still there.

> Although China produces a high volume of research, the quality and global impact of research from the U.S. and Europe are often considered higher.

By whom?

It's important to consider that China and the US/Europe didn't start on equal footing.

Just 75 years ago China was ages behind the US. The speed at which they're progressing is mindblowing, especially considering their population.

Compare China with India, if your intent is to do a fairer comparison.


> There's nothing like WeChat in the west yet. I'm not sure this strong lead is still there.

China has a lot of really impressive technology and innovation happening. An app store inside a messaging app is not what I would point to as groundbreaking from a technology standpoint.


It's not an app store inside a messaging app, it's a mega app. You can do literally everything with it, from home banking to payments to filing for divorce and booking a doctor.


> China has a lot of really impressive technology and innovation happening.

Such as?


On the other side the US Apollo rock samples from the moon are now lost somewhere in dusty warehouses, disinterested, neglected and unaccounted for.

There was an incident few years ago, where a couple had stolen some moon dust, spread it on their bed sheets and has sex on top.


>The U.S. and other countries maintain a strong lead in original innovation, with Silicon Valley and other tech hubs producing groundbreaking technologies and startups.

What are these groundbreaking technologies? Social apps? Marketing automation tools? Ride sharing apps?


[flagged]


Please read the community guidelines, arnavpraneet. Specifically:

> Assume good faith.

And

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.


I agree, we all stooped to this point because all we did was laugh at them as they outsmarted us and played for keeps.


I mean, the first robotic sample return was in 1970: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16

This is more a case of "no-one has really been able to make an economic case for doing this sort of thing since the 70s."


Elon Musk is ahead of everyone else in space. While nice, this and everything else anyone has done this and past decade in space is much less significant than the far more economical rockets Musk has built, basically with his bare hands.


Not just Elon Musk, there are so many talented Engineers at SpaceX, and they are doing the hard work day in and day out.


Right, however it is customary to ascribe accomplishments to the person making the work possible rather than those who execute it. The same engineers won’t do as much anywhere else.


"Both spacecraft will be traveling at around 1.6 kilometers per second during the maneuvers."

This means absolutely nothing if it doesn't say with relation to what.


To the Moon. 1.6 km/s is the orbital speed for the low Moon orbit.


Both sides of the moon are dark. With albedo of 0.136, it's one of the darkest things in the solar system.


You'd be dark too if you were made out of the smashed insides of two crash victims mushed together!

Though it probably doesn't feel very dark in sunlight with no atmosphere above you. Like standing in a very exposed, lumpy, dusty car park (asphalt albedo: 0.05-0.1), except the sky is black, not blue.


Is that fresh, black asphalt or older, light asphalt?


New, old asphalt goes up to around 0.25 in some cases apparently: https://eng.auburn.edu/research/centers/ncat/newsroom/2016-f...




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: