The exploration of the Moon and Mars continues apace

THIS WEEK has seen the publication of results collected by probes to two heavenly bodies: , a Chinese mission to the Moon, and , an American mission to Mars. landed in January 2019; arrived the previous November. The Chinese team, bowing to the realities of scientific publishing, have presented their results in , an American journal. The Americans, however, have chosen , a British journal owned by German publishers. is China’s second successful lunar lander, and the first from any country to touch down intact on the Moon’s far side—the part never visible from Earth. Its purpose, other than demonstrating China’s technological prowess, is to investigate the geology of Von Kármán crater in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. To that end it is fitted with a ground-penetrating radar which can peer many metres down.