Move over, hoverboards.  A new pair of hovershoes unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show could soon replace your scooter, bike and skateboard - just don't try to take them for a spin in the rain.

Called the Motokick hover shoes, the $200 self-balancing skates slip underneath your shoes to propel users at speeds of up to 7 mph and can even play music.  All users have to do to get moving is tilt backwards and forwards, then they're ready to cruise.

They look a bit whacky and can feel awkward when worn for the first time, but it only takes a few tries before wearers will be ready to zoom about at full speed.  Rubber covers the top of the shoes so that users' feet can grip onto the surface and not slide off.

Jetson, the company behind Motokicks, basically took the same technology used in its hoverboards, split the board in half and fit the tech into a pair of platform skates.  Inside the shoes are sensors, a rechargeable lithium ion battery, motors and a motherboard.  A number of sensors power what Jetson calls active balance technology so that it's 'balanced at all times.'

And so far so good.  In a demo for DailyMail.com, a Jetson employee was able to scoot around the CES floor with ease.

'It's self-balancing and it feels very much like skates.  I feel more in control than on a hoverboard because once you get the hang of it, you realize...it's just very simple movements,' Michael Ruskin, vice president of operations at Jetson, told DailyMail.com.

But don't expect to ride a pair of hovershoes to work anytime soon, as they aren't great for riding on carpets or in the rain because they need traction to be stable.

One of the coolest hidden features of the hovershoes is that they turn into a roving boombox.  With the push of a button, music will start playing through the shoes with strobe lights flashing along with the beat.  So if you play some dubstep, the flashing lights will 'bump with the music,' Ruskin said.

What's more, the hovershoes will soon be able to magically transform into a hoverboard and a go-kart.   At CES, Jetson also showed off its 'go-kart for adults,' an electric go-kart that uses a hoverboard as its base and can go up to 10mph.  The hovershoes themselves won't be available for purchase until later this year, according to Jetson.

Motokicks aren't the first hovershoes to hit the market - Segway released its own self-balancing skates, called the Drift W1s, earlier this year.  But Jetson's hovershoes still manage to stand out, with unique features like the flashing LED lights that sync up with music, as well as the fact that they transform into a hoverboard.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

   

Cars are getting smarter - and while many focus on seeing the road ahead, they are also set to begin analyzing drivers and passengers.

This week at CES, the international consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, a host of startup companies are showing off inward facing cameras that watch and analyze drivers, passengers and objects in cars.  Carmakers say they will boost safety - but privacy campaigners warn they could be used to make money by analyzing every movement - even being able to track a passenger's gaze to see what ads they are looking at, and monitor the emotions of people through their facial expressions.  Although the current systems don't listen in on conversation, it is feared this could also be added in future versions.

In-car sensor technology is deemed critical to the full deployment of self-driving cars, which analysts say is still likely years away in the United States.  Right now, self-driving cars are still mainly at the testing stage.

The more sophisticated in-car monitoring also could respond to concerns that technology that automates some - but not all - driving tasks could lead motorists to stop paying attention and not be ready to retake control should the situation demand it.

When self-driving cars gain broad acceptance, the monitoring cameras and the artificial-intelligence software behind them will likely be used to help create a more customized ride for the passengers.  Right now, however, such cameras are being used mainly to enhance safety, not unlike a helpful backseat driver.  Interior-facing cameras inside the car are still a novelty, currently found only in the 2018 Cadillac CT6.  Audi and Tesla Inc have developed systems but they are not currently activated.  Mazda, Subaru and electric vehicle start-up Byton are introducing cars for 2019 whose cameras measure driver inattention.  Startup Nauto's camera and AI-based tech is used by commercial fleets.

Data from the cameras is analyzed with image recognition software to determine whether a driver is looking at his cellphone or the dashboard, turned away, or getting sleepy, to cite a few examples.  Companies such as Israel's Guardian Optical Technologies and eyeSight Technologies, Silicon Valley's Eyeris Technologies Inc, Sweden's Smart Eye AB, Australia's Seeing Machines Ltd , and Vayyar Imaging, another Israeli company using radar instead of vision, are crowding the space.  Many have already signed undisclosed deals for production year 2020 and beyond.

It is not yet clear how consumers in the age of Facebook Inc and virtual assistants like Amazon.com's Alexa will react to the potentially disconcerting idea of being watched - then warned - inside a vehicle, especially as cars become living rooms with the advent of self-driving.

Automakers are paying attention for multiple reasons.

As Guardian Optical CEO Gil Dotan said, 'What automakers want is what either sells cars, or what regulators tell them to do.'

The future of the technology rests in deciphering what a vehicle occupant wants, then fusing that with other technologies in order to create a more personalized ride.

'The more you know about the user, the more you're able to fulfill his or her needs,' said Eric Montague, senior director of strategy for Nuance Automotive. Nuance's connected car platform mixes eye-tracking technology, voice recognition and even emotion analysis, from a company called Affectiva.

Analysis from driver monitoring technology could help turn on the heat, lower the seat or play a certain kind of music when a particular occupant enters the car.  If a passenger looks toward the dashboard, a certain control could light up to help anticipate a need.

Automakers are more excited by the revenue possibilities when vehicle-generated data creates a more customized experience for riders, generating higher premiums, and lucrative tie-ins with third parties, such as retailers.

'The reason (the camera) is going to sweep across the cabin is not because of distraction ... but because of all the side benefits,' said Mike Ramsey, Gartner's automotive research director.  I promise you that companies that are trying to monetize data from the connected car are investigating ways to use eye-tracking technology.'

Potential uses go way beyond mere tracking of a driver's gaze.  Regulators like the technology at its most basic.

Eye tracking can determine if a driver is not paying attention, or worse, is asleep.  That will become essential as cars become more autonomous, for 'Level 3' autonomy where the car handles most driving but returns control to the driver in trickier situations.

European car safety rating program Euro NCAP has proposed that cars with driver monitoring for 2020 should earn higher ratings.  In the wake of a 2016 fatal Tesla crash, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recommended automakers develop means to better track driver engagement.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Animals living in cities may be more likely to get cancer - just like humans, a study suggests.

Light, chemical and noise pollution, food high in sugars, and viruses have all been found to increase the chances of humans getting cancer.  Now researchers suggest the same factors could be raising the risk of cancers in wild animals living in cities such as birds, squirrels, rats, mice and hedgehogs.

Researchers led by Giradeau Mathieu writing in Proceedings B of the Royal Society said: 'Wild animal populations can be compared to prehistoric human populations, in which fossil data indicate a low prevalence of cancer.  It is clear that the characteristics of a modern lifestyle and the urbanising environment have brought along a change in cancer prevalence in humans, but so far little attention has been given to similar changes in wild animals.  It has only recently been proposed that human activities might increase the cancer rate in wild populations'.

Obesity is linked to 10 per cent of cancers in humans.  Feeding animals such as squirrels food such as bread - which is not a natural part of their diet - is leading to obesity although it will need more research to pinpoint the link, the authors suggest.

The researchers write 'we suggest tourist fed small mammals such as squirrels in urban parks are a good place to start looking for links between anthropogenic food, obesity and cancer in wildlife.'

The authors say that further evidence that city life is bad for animals has been found in gulls and laboratory rats, both of which show more mutations living near major motorways or steel mills.

Pollution at sea is thought to be compromising the immune systems of sea turtles and sea lions making them more susceptible to cancer causing viruses.

Domestic cats living in cities are more likely to suffer the feline equivalent of the HIV infection, weakening their immune systems, and this makes them more likely to get cancer, the researchers state.

Cities can also lead to habitat fragmentation, which leads to greater inbreeding from populations due to barriers such as roads.

Light pollution has been found to increase cancer in humans.  Known as ALAN, artificial light at night, is also likely to trigger cancer in animals. The authors suggest that further research should look at the effects of light on birds - as the increased hormone levels due to higher light exposure have been linked to higher cancer rates.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Toyota has revealed a look at the autonomous backup system that could soon assist drivers to prevent car accidents.

The firm kicked off its CES presentation on January 7 with a visual re-enactment of a recent three-car accident in California that it claims could have been avoided with its Toyota Guardian technology.

According to Toyota, Guardian is designed to ‘amplify human control of the vehicle, not replace it.’  This means it can identify potential incidents and alert the driver – or make its own corrective response when necessary.

Dr. Gill Pratt, TRI CEO and Toyota Motor Corporation Fellow said during the press conference in Las Vegas: ‘We all have a moral obligation to apply automated vehicle technology to save as many lives as possible, as soon as possible.  That’s why TRI’s primary focus over this past year has been to concentrate most of our effort on Toyota Guardian.  The driver is in control of the vehicle at all times, except when it detects an impending incident.’  The system, according to Pratt, ‘combines and coordinates the skills and strengths of the human with the machine.’

Toyota will include Guardian as standard equipment on all Toyota e-Palette platforms for the ‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS) market.  The system works much like the collaboration of a pilot and fighter jet, the firm explained.

In the future, however, Toyota is also planning to roll out a fully autonomous system dubbed Chauffer, which will take over for the driver entirely.  Toyota showed off how the self-driving capabilities could work with its Lexus TRI-P4 research vehicle.  But, this technology is still a ways off.

‘Technically, how do we train a machine about the social ballet required to navigate through an ever-changing environment, as well as, or better than, a human driver?  Sociologically, public acceptance of the inevitable crashes, injuries, and deaths that will occur due to fully autonomous Chauffeur systems may take considerable time,’ Pratt said.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Why we choose to 'up the ante' and take risks even in the face of long odds may be hardwired into our brains, new research suggests.  Experts used a simple card game to examine what happens inside our heads when we take a decision to gamble or choose a safer bet.

Scientists monitored participants brain activity and found a 'tug of war' takes place between the right and left side of the brain when we make a risky decision.  Which one wins depends partly on previous experience.  The findings were used to develop a mathematical equation that could accurately predict a participant's future decisions, based on their past wagers.

The research could shed light on how soldiers in high-risk combat situations choose a course of action, experts say.  It could also lead to more effective brain training to 'rewire' long-term behaviours and habits. 

Scientists from John Hopkins University studied patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains to locate the source of seizures.  The same electrodes let researchers analyse brain activity in real time as the group took part in a computerised card game.

Participants were shown two cards on a computer screen, one face up and the other face down.  They had to bet low or high, staking $5 or $20, that their card had a higher value than the computer's hidden one.

Dr Pierre Sacre, who co-led the study, said: 'When your right brain has high-frequency activity and you get a gamble, you're pushed to take more of a risk.  But if the left side has high-frequency activity, it's pulling you away from taking a risk.  We call this a push-pull system.'

The high-rolling right brain pushes us to take a chance while the sensible left urges us to hold back.

A recent spate of successful bets or decisions that pay off in everyday life can create a 'bias' that translates into more risk-taking even in the face of poor odds, the scientists found.  Conversely, a bias in the other direction will cause the 'sensible' brain to dominate and make a person risk-averse.

Lead researcher Professor Sridevi Sarma, also from Johns Hopkins University, added: 'What we learned is that there is a bias that develops over time that may make people view risk differently.'

A mathematical equation developed by the team successfully calculated each patient's bias based on their past wagers.

Professor Sarma said: 'Over time, the players are accumulating all the past card values and all the past outcomes, but with a fading memory.  In other words, what happened most recently weighs on a person more than older events do.  This means that based on the history of a participant's bets, we can predict how that person is feeling as they gamble.'

The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

  

Volo Beauty has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first cordless hair dryer.  The firm showed off its award-winning technology at CES Unveiled on Sunday night ahead of the show’s official opening, revealing how it strays from the traditional coil-heating system to dramatically cut down the time it takes to dry your hair.

According to Volo, the wire-free blow dryer can run on medium heat for more than 20 minutes on a single charge – although the firm says it can dry long hair in just about 10 minutes.

The system, called Volo Go, has a battery incorporated all throughout the handle, allowing it to ditch the cords for truly untethered use.  But, it doesn’t come cheap; Volo says its cordless dryer will be released at $399.

Volo Go was named a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree ahead of the massive Las Vegas tech event, and will officially launch on Kickstarter on January 7.

The system comes years in the making, says CEO and co-founder Ryan Goldman, who tells Dailymail.com he was ‘tired of seeing all of the cords hanging out of drawers’ at his salons.  Unlike traditional tethered hair dryers, which rely on nichrome wire – or, ‘that little wrapped coil’ – Volo Go uses quartz infrared.  Nichrome wire is based on conductive heat, Goldman explained.

‘It’s basically what’s in a toaster oven – the technology was developed in the 1920s,' the CEO told Dailymail.com.  So, I re-engineered the heating element using quartz infrared, which is a different method for drying hair. Quartz infrared is radiant heat, like the sun.  It emits a glow, and that’s the radiant heat.  It’s not as hot, but it’s drying your hair faster, from the inside out.’

On medium heat, Volo Go can run for roughly 24 minutes on a single charge.  On a high heat, it will last about 13 minutes.  The firm says this should be more than enough, even for users with a lot of hair.

'Hair appliances are a $20 billion a year market, and yet they still require consumers to be tethered to a wall.  Between the VOLO infrared heat element, which is healthier for hair, and the lithium-ion battery, the VOLO Go is a feat of engineering that will forever change the hot tools market,' said Jonathan Friedman, President and Co-Founder.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

   

A Chinese rover is making its tracks on the soft surface of the 'dark' side of the moon after touching down on our nearest celestial neighbour.

The Yutu-2 - or Jade Rabbit 2 - rover drove off its lander's ramp and onto the exterior of the moon's far side at 10:22pm Beijing time (2:22 pm GMT) on January 3, about 12 hours after the Chinese spacecraft carrying it came to rest.

China's space agency later posted a photos online, revealing lunar rover several yards away from the spacecraft.  The tracks it makes on the surface of the moon will be forever immotalised and will never be lost as there is no wind on the moon due to its lack of an atmosphere.

By 5pm Beijing time (9am GMT) the three 15-foot long antennaes on Chang'e-4 had also been fully unfurled to enable the low-frequency radio spectrometre to begin work.  The rover which is currently meandering around the moon on six independently controlled wheels, has also established a robust connection with its relay satellite, Queqiao.

Yutu-2 has already completed environmental perception, route planning, walking to where it is pictured currently and starting its scientific operations.  Chinese state media also reports that the cameras on the machine have been turned on and are working normally.  Other equipment will be turned on one by one, according to the Chinese space agency CNSA.

Yutu-2 is expected to go into standby mode - 'nap mode' in Chinese - once these tests are complete.  Experts hope it will reactivate on January 10 and resume normal functioning, according to China Central Television, although that is not guaranteed.

Jade Rabbit 2 weighs 139kg and has six individually powered wheels so it can continue to operate even if one wheel fails.  It can climb a 20-degree hill or an obstacle up to 20 cm tall and its maximum speed is said to be 200 metres per hour.  The pioneering rover is 1.5 metres long and about one metre wide and tall, with two foldable solar panels and six wheels.

Yutu-2 and its accompanying lander will carry out mineral, biological and radiation tests ahead of a future base that China hopes to build on the moon.  Results of these experiments could lead to new understandings of the challenges faced by settlers who may one day colonise our natural satellite.

'It's a small step for the rover, but one giant leap for the Chinese nation.  This giant leap is a decisive move for our exploration of space and the conquering of the universe,' Wu Weiren, the chief designer of the Lunar Exploration Project, told state broadcaster CCTV.

The rover is equipped with a variety of scientific instruments to help it analyse the surface of the moon, including a panoramic and infrared camera, ground-penetrating radar a low-frequency radio spectrometer.   However, experts say that the craft will not be able to function indefinitely and may only be able to operate for as little as one day.

Professor Ian Crawford from the department of Earth and planetary sciences at Birkbeck College London said: 'Of course, it's never going to leave the Moon, so the question is really how long it can remain operational.  I suspect they will hope for at least one lunar day - 14 Earth days - after which, if it is still working, it will have to hibernate during the 14-day lunar night because it is solar powered, and hopefully wake up again afterwards.  That is a tall order because the lunar night is so cold - about -180°C.  While operational, it will rove around studying the composition of rocks, and the sub-surface using its ground-penetrating radar.  It will just be left on the Moon once it ceases to function, unless one day it is collected and brought back to a museum.'

The rover will use its panoramic camera to identify interesting locations and its Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) will help analyse minerals in the crater.  This includes what scientists call 'ejecta' - rocks that have churned up from deep to the surface from impacts meteors.

Its Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) instrument will take a look down into the depths of the moon with a maximum vertical distance of approximately 100 metres.

Experiments of seeds and plants that were taken to the moon from Earth on-board the Chang'e-4 probe will be done inside the lunar lander itself.  Unlike its predecessor, the Chang'e-3 mission, the latest addition to the moon's surface does not have a robotic arm.  The lander also has a low-frequency radio spectrometer (LFS) which will be part of a scientific experiment to study space without the constant radio interference from Earth.

Being on the far side of the moon shields the equipment from the noise and will allow Chang'e-4 to produce a low-radio wave emission map of the sky.

Dr Matthew Bothwell, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, told MailOnline that this could be a crucial step in the future of space exploration and compared its importance to that of the first telescope.

'The far side of the moon is the only place in the reachable universe that we are able to do this kind of research.  Putting an object as large as the moon between the Earth's constant beaming of radio waves and the antennaes is a fantastic way of filtering out noise from Earth.  Very long wavelength radiowaves are impossible to study due to their universal beaming of radio waves 24/7 and the emissions from the universe is really faint in comparison.'

Dr Bothwell added that there is no way of knowing what this could reveal and the opportunities for discovery are enormous.  'It will provide a new window to look at the universe and we will likely find unexpected things,' he added.

Dr Bothwell also said that depending on the success of the data gathered by Chang'e-4, it could lead to a ground-based telescope being installed on the far side of the moon.  The far side can't be seen from Earth and is popularly called the 'dark side' because it is relatively unknown, not because it lacks sunlight.

'The surface is soft and it is similar that you are walking on the snow,' Shen Zhenrong, the rover designer from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said on CCTV.

Three nations - the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China - have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, but the latest landing is the first on the far side.  That side has been observed many times from lunar orbit, but never up close.

The mission highlights China's growing ambitions to rival the U.S., Russia and Europe in space, and more broadly, to cement its position as a regional and global power.

Lunar explorer Chang'e-4 touched down at 10.26am local time (2.26am GMT) on January 3, state media reported, and soon after beamed back the first ever image of the 'dark side' of the moon.  It then released its rover, Yutu-2, which rolled out onto the lunar surface.

While stationed on the moon, Yutu-2 will attempt to explore the famous Von Karman crater in the Aitken basin, the largest impact crater in the entire solar system at 13 km deep and 2,500 km in diameter.  It will also be tasked with carrying out mineral and radiation tests, presenting scientists with the first-ever chance to examine materials from the far side of the moon.

The far side of the moon - colloquially known as the dark side - actually gets as much light as the near side but always faces away from Earth.  This is because the moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet, so the far side - or the 'dark side' - is never visible from our planet.  This relatively unexplored region is mountainous and rugged, making a successful landing much harder to achieve.

It appears to take on a reddish hue in some of the images released by China due to an effect from the lights used on the mission, according to Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham.

Beijing is hoping to send another probe next year that will retrieve samples and bring them back to Earth.

Images, footage and information regarding the Chang'e-4 mission were scarce prior to January 3's announcement from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) of a successful landing due to the nation's quest to beat the US, Europe and Russia to the landmark achievement.  Footage later emerged of the landing after it was spotted playing inside the control room by an eagle-eyed onlooker - but was not live streamed to the public by the secretive space agency.

Beijing is pouring billions into the military-run programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans to the moon.

The Chang'e-4 lunar probe mission - named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology - launched in December 2018 from the southwestern Xichang launch centre.  It is the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu rover mission in 2013.  China announced that in honour of this success the rover on-board Chang'e-4 has been named Yutu 2.   Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the moon, but none has landed on it.

China launched the Chang'e-4 probe on December 7 2018 by a Long March-3B rocket.  It includes a lander and a rover to explore the surface of the moon.

Xinhua said the probe entered an elliptical lunar orbit at 08.55 Beijing time, which brought it 15km away from the surface of the moon.  The Chang'e-4 first entered a lunar orbit on December 12, 2018.

The probe entered lunar orbit 'to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon', the China National Space Administration said at the time.

The tasks of the Chang'e-4 include astronomical observation, surveying the moon's terrain, landform and mineral composition, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon.  Researchers hope the seeds will grow to blossom on the Moon, with the process captured on camera and transmitted to Earth.

China aims to catch up with Russia and the United States to become a major space power by 2030.  It is planning to launch construction of its own manned space station next year and have its own lunar base by 2036.

Dr Bothwell said: 'The success of the landing and of this mission puts china in a very strong position among other nations.  The co-operation between the space agencies is great for science and is a case of humanity working together to understand more about the mysteries and issues of the universe.  Possibly the best thing that could happen is another space race similar to the competition between the US and Russia in the 60s and 70s.  With ESA, Roscosmos and NASA all taking significant steps and the private space race between SpaceX and other firms hotting up, it could bring about a renaissance in space exploration.'

China has steadfastly insisted its ambitions are purely peaceful, the US Defense Department has accused it of pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets during a crisis.

The space control centre will select a 'proper time' to land the probe on the far side of the moon, Xinhua reported.  As the landing is happening on the dark side of the moon it required its own satellite to be able to send information back.  To facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang'e-4 mission, China launched a relay satellite named Queqiao on 20 May and is now stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon.  This will be the primary form of communication between Earth and the spacecraft.  The probe and explorer will use Queqiao to get their findings back to China.  Its descent was also aided by the relay satellite, the Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge.

This is positioned at a place in space called L2, a Langraine point.  A Lagrange point is a spot in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies are equivalent to the centrifugal force of another body.

L2 is a million miles beyond Earth in the opposite direction to the sun and for an object to remain stationary there it depends on a fragile equilibrium between the gravitational pull of the moon, Earth and the Sun.

Exploring the Von Karman crater on the surface of the moon may shed new light on its history and geology by collecting rocks that have never been seen before.

China opted to study the far side of the moon and has in the process beaten all other nations to the landmark moment.  Chang'e-4 landed in the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin - the largest known impact basin in the solar system.  The crater is believed to be composed of various chemical compounds, including thorium, iron oxide, and titanium dioxide.   It is also hoped that by judging this deep scar on the surface of the moon the scientists could find clues to piece together the origin of the lunar mantle.

Dr Bothwell told MailOnline: 'The probe landed in the Aitkin basin, which is a really really ancient impact crater formed in a phase of the solar system called heavy bombardment between three and four billion years ago.  Such a massive impact would have caused rock from the mantle to splash out and reach the surface.  Because the moon has no atmosphere and therefore no wind, these rocks remain untouched and unaltered since this event.  This provides us with a unique way of studying the inner workings on the moon which we simply do not have on Earth and because the moon was once part of Earth, could shed light on how the moon, Earth and other planets develop as they often have similar geological processes.'

There is also another logistical reason for the choice of landing site, the crater is mostly flat in the south of the basin and this increased the likelihood of a successful landing.

Chang'e-4 has been described as 'hugely ambitious' and heralded as a sign of China's growing intentions to rival the space exploration prowess of the US, Russia and the EU.  It has a gold exterior which will protect the probe from the harsh environments of the moon.  Gold is an excellent thermal insulator which will protect the inner workings of Chang'e-4 from the temperature peak of 127°C and lows of -173°C.  The lunar day and night each lasts for 14 days, half of its orbit around Earth.

As well as surviving these harsh environments the probe must create its own power.  It does this by using two large square solar panels affixed to the top of the machine.

China's latest mission closely follows the touchdown of NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars, at a site less than 640km from the American rover Curiosity, the only other working robot on Mars.

Chang'e-4's role in helping China build a 'Lunar Palace'

As well as radiation monitoring and mineralogical experiments, China's Chang'e-4 probe contains a 'lunar mini biosphere' to perform biological studies.

It holds potato seeds and silkworm eggs, as well as Arabidopsis seeds - plants related to cabbage and mustard that are commonly used by biologists as a model for how plants behave in different environments.  The seeds and eggs are kept in a small cylindrical tin and are expected to grow inside the 0.8L container.

The 'lunar mini biosphere' is part of Beijing's biological studies in space as it plans to build a lunar base and eventually put people on the moon by 2036.

Researchers hope the potato and arabidopsis seeds will grow to blossom on the moon in 100 days, with the process captured on camera and transmitted to Earth, according to a previous report from Huanqiu.com citing Xinhua News Agency.  The silkworm eggs are also expected to hatch into larvae before growing into silkworm moths.

The three kg tin is made from a specially developed aluminium alloy.  It is 18 cm tall, with a diameter of 16 cm and a net volume of 0.8 litres.  As well as seeds, it contains water, a nutrient solution, air and equipment including a small camera and data transmission system.  Researchers from 28 Chinese Universities are behind the project, led by southwest China's Chongqing University.

Astronauts have previously cultivated plants on the International Space Station. Rice and arabidopsis were also grown on China's Tiangong-2 space lab.

Professor Conscelice told MailOnline: 'China is doing experiments with seeds and worms to see how things form in space and there is relatively little information on this.  That's a new era of space exploration which we can learn about which was impossible before Chang'e-4.'

Speaking to Xinhua last year, the chief designer of the 'lunar mini biosphere' Xie Gengxin called the experiment 'significant'.  Xie said it could herald a breakthrough for them to understand how humans might be able to survive on an alien planet.

Zhang Yuanxun, a director from China's Deep-space Exploration Associated Research Centre, said the difficulties of the experiment were to control the temperatures and ensure energy supply for the 'lunar mini biosphere' in the 'complicated' environment on the moon.

The lunar day and night each lasts for 14 days, half of its orbit around Earth. The temperatures on its surface could range from the peak of 127°C to lows of -173°C.  To control the temperatures, scientists put insulating layers around the tin and built a mini air-conditioning system inside hoping it could provide a pleasant environment for the plants to grow.  To obtain energy, the tin will be powered by the solar panels on Chang'e 4 during the day and its internal batteries during the night.

Myths and mystique of the 'dark side of the moon'

The far side of the moon has remained, until very recently, one of the most mysterious parts of our solar system.  Due to a quirk in the rotation and orbital patterns of the Earth and the moon there is a vast portion of our satellite which we never glimpse from our planet.  To study this part of the moon requires high-power and high-resolution space telescopes or cameras on spacecrafts.  This mystery has led to a range of myths, idioms and superstitions which have changed over time.

Earth's very first glimpse at the mysterious side of the moon came in 1959 when a Soviet space mission snapped the distant world.

Its grainy image sparked public intrigue into what it looked like and, despite several visits to the near side of the moon by both the USSR and the US, it remained somewhat of an enigma.

Prog-rock band Pink Floyd tapped into this mystique when they released their 1973 album titled 'The Dark Side of the Moon'.  The popular music group took the moniker and used it metaphorically, to represent mental illness.  Many fans believe it was inspired by the deteriorating health of former member Syd Barrett, who left the band in 1968 after experimenting heavily with LSD.

Before the rise in popularity of the concept album the dark side of the moon had a significant place in folklore around the world, with references to in Ancient Babylonian culture, modern-day conspiracy theories and potential uses in the Cold War.

Babylonians were documenting the stages of the moon on clay tablets but were likely unaware it as a spherical, barren rock.

Isaac Newton, with his poetic 18th-century theory of gravity which explained many mysteries of the universe, allowed us to understand just how the moon's presence creates tides.

Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that astronauts and government agencies have developed a lunar base - and even a castle - on the far side of the moon, away from the prying eyes of Earth.

These have all, unsurprisingly, been dispelled and refuted by NASA.

Reports claim that at the height of the Cold War there were some plans in place to detonate a nuclear bomb there.  These unproved claims never came to fruition and, until today, the far side of the moon has remained free of human interference.

A film was released in 1990 which also had the title 'The Dark Side of the Moon' but instead of being a rock masterpiece and cult favourite, it featured a fictional group of astronauts who found an abandoned space shuttle there.  Throughout the course of the film the characters find out the shuttle disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and is now home to soul-eating aliens.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

October 24 2007 - China launches Chang'e-1, an unmanned satellite, into space where it remains operational for more than a year.

October 1 2010 - China launches Chang'e-2. This was part of the first phase of the Chinese moon programme. It was in a 100-km-high lunar orbit to gather data for the upcoming Chang'e-3 mission.

September 29, 2011 - China launched Tiangong-1.

September 15 2013 - A second space lab, Tiangong-2, is launched.

December 1 2013 - Chang'e-3 launched.

December 14 2013 - Chang'e-3, a 2,600 lb lunar probe landed on the near side of the moon successfully. It became the first object to soft-land on the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976.

April 1 2018 - Tiangong-1 crashed into Earth at 17,000 mph and lands in the ocean off the coast if Tahiti.

May 20 2018 - China launched a relay satellite named Queqiao which is stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon. This is designed to enable Chang'e-4 to communicate with engineers back on Earth.

December 7 2018 - Chinese space agency announces it has launched the Chang'e-4 probe into space.

December 12 2018 -  Retrorockets on the probe fired to stabilise the spacecraft and slow it down.

December 31 2018 -   The probe prepared for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon.

Estimated for 2020 – Tiangong-3, a follow-up mission to the Tiangong-2

Before 2033 - China plans for its first uncrewed Mars exploration program.

2040 - 2060 - The Asian superpower is planning a crewed mission to Mars.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

   

A Chinese space probe has moved into position to land on the dark side of the moon for the first time, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The probe, the Chang'e-4, entered a planned orbit on December 30 'to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon', the news agency said, citing the China National Space Administration.  It didn't say when the landing would occur but experts from the Smithsonian Institution, the American museums and research centres group, reported that the craft was expected to set down on the Von Kármán crater landing point between January 1 and 3, according to the South China Morning Post.

Chang'e-4 will target the South Pole-Aitken basin's Von Karman crater, the largest in the entire solar system at 15,000 miles across and eight miles deep.

The moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet, so the far side - or the 'dark side' - is never visible from Earth.  Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the moon, but none has landed on it.

China launched the Chang'e-4 probe earlier in December, carried by a Long March-3B rocket.  It includes a lander and a rover to explore the surface of the moon.  Xinhua said that the probe had entered an elliptical lunar orbit at 08.55 Beijing time, which brought it at its closest point just 15 kilometres away from the surface of the moon.  The Chang'e-4 first entered a lunar orbit on December 12.

The tasks of the Chang'e-4 include astronomical observation, surveying the moon's terrain, landform and mineral composition, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon.

China aims to catch up with Russia and the United States to become a major space power by 2030.  It is planning to launch construction of its own manned space station in 2020.

However, while China has insisted its ambitions are purely peaceful, the U.S. Defense Department has accused it of pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets during a crisis.

The space control centre will select a 'proper time' to land the probe on the far side of the moon, Xinhua reported.  Its descent is being aided by a relay satellite, the Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge.  Retrorockets on the probe fired on December 12 to stabilise the spacecraft and slow it down.  It took off from the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan, south-west China at 6:30 GMT on December 7 atop a Long March-3B rocket.  It is expected to perform a 'soft-landing' and land on the moon after completing its 27 day journey through space.

Exploring the huge divot on the surface of the moon may shed new light on its history and geology by collecting rocks that have never been seen before.   Researchers hope the huge depth of the crater will allow them to study the moon's mantle, the layer underneath the surface, of the moon.

Chang'e-4 has been described as 'hugely ambitious' and heralded as a sign of China's growing intentions to rival the space exploration prowess of the US, Russia and the EU.

  

To facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang'e-4 mission, China launched a relay satellite named Queqiao on May 20 and is now stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon.  This will be the primary form of communication between Earth and the spacecraft.  The probe and explorer will use Queqiao to get their findings back to China.  As the landing is happening on the dark side of the moon it required its own satellite to be able to send information back.

China's latest mission closely follows the touchdown of NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars on December 31, at a site less than 400 miles from the American rover Curiosity, the only other working robot on Mars.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

China landed its Yutu, or 'Jade Rabbit', rover on the moon five years ago and plans to send its Chang'e-5 probe there next year.

Change-5 is the follow up to the current mission and will return to Earth with the first samples from the moon since 1976.

The Asian superpower is also considering a crewed lunar mission.

On September 29, 2011, China launched Tiangong 1.

On December 14, 2013, China's Chang'e 3 became the first object to soft-land on the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976

A second space lab, Tiangong 2, launched on 15 September 2016.

A larger basic permanent space station would be the third and last phase of Project 921.

The first section, designated Tiangong 3, is scheduled for launch after Tiangong 2.

The Chinese space station is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

China also plans for its first uncrewed Mars exploration program could take place sometime between now and 2033, followed by a crewed phase in 2040-2060.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk