The Race to Develop the Moon - For science, profit, and pride, China, the U.S., and private companies are hunting for resources on the lunar surface.
From The New Yorker: In January, the China National Space Administration landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, the side we can鈥檛 see from Earth. Chang鈥檈-4 was named for a goddess in Chinese mythology, who lives on the moon for reasons connected to her husband鈥檚 problematic immortality drink. The story has many versions. In one, Chang鈥檈 has been banished to the moon for elixir theft and turned into an ugly toad. In another, she has saved humanity from a tyrannical emperor by stealing the drink. In many versions, she is a luminous beauty and has as a companion a pure-white rabbit.
Chang鈥檈-4 is the first vehicle to alight on the far side of the moon. From that side, the moon blocks radio communication with Earth, which makes landing difficult, and the surface there is craggy and rough, with a mountain taller than anything on Earth. Older geologies are exposed, from which billions of years of history can be deduced. Chang鈥檈-4 landed in a nearly four-mile-deep hole that was formed when an ancient meteor crashed into the moon鈥攐ne of the largest known impact craters in our solar system.