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In many ways, China’s space program still lags far behind that of the US, Russia, and Japan — but nobody has more momentum. The Chang’e lunar exploration program is maybe the most stark example of the country’s incredible push to space, having launched its first orbiter in 2007, the second in 2010, and its first lander/rover in 2013. The country has a sample return mission planned for 2017, but this week we found out what the next next mission will be: a trip to the surface of the far side of the Moon.

That’s important for a number of reasons. Since it’s the outward-facing side, the far side of the Moon is physically shielded from the cacophony of radio signals generated by the Earth. It can hide from the light and noise pollution of mankind, and so astronomers have long fantasized about setting up a Lunar observatory there. However, you can’t set up a telescope — or mine for resources, as China has been so intent on researching — in a place you’ve never really studied. Despite some amazing recent satellite images, the far side of the Moon is still far too alien to consider a major development project.

The Chang’e 3 lander, launched in 2013.

So, this mission will focus on surveying the geography of this enormous area of the Lunar surface. As a lander, its view will be zoomed all the way in to a single landing point, combining close-up readings and chemical analysis with the satellite fly-over images of the past several years. It will help pave the way for a whole new generation of Lunar missions, but like any of the far-side missions it will inspire, this lander will only be able to communicate with the Earth by bouncing its signals off a satellite and around the bulk of the Moon.

The naming scheme for this mission is a bit weird. Chang’e 3, the rover mission, was the most recent to launch, but changes to the overall Chang’e mission after that partially failed landing caused the agency to totally reimagine the next mission, Chang’e 4. Chang’e 5, the 2017 sample return mission, will now actually end up launching before this newly re-unveiled Chang’e 4 mission, around 2020. Expect the name to change at some point.

Given the incredible momentum of China’s space program, many have speculated that the nation is gearing up for a manned mission to the Moon, though other experts doubt this and no such mission has been officially confirmed. What we do know is that China views the Moon as a bigger priority than many other space powers, seeing it as a possible long term economic investment, as well as a useful base for next-gen scientific and strategic projects. They’re the only ones really looking at the Moon for possible future resource gathering — though the details aren’t out yet, Chang’e 4 lander will probably have at least some resource-sniffing aspect to its mission.

Also remember that, header imagery aside, this is not a trip to the dark side of the Moon, which doesn’t exist. A process called “tidal locking” keeps a single face of the Moon turned toward the Earth as the two bodies move through space, but the far side gets just as much light as the near. If nothing else, think of a solar eclipse; when the moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun, it should be obvious that the far side is being illuminated.