Reach for the stars: China wants to be first to land probe on moon's far side

China's increasingly ambitious space program plans to attempt the first-ever landing of a lunar probe on the moon's far side, a leading engineer said. 

The Chang'e 4 mission is planned for sometime before 2020, Zou Yongliao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' moon exploration department told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. 

Zou said the mission's objective would be to study geological conditions on the moon's far side, also known as the dark side. 

That could eventually lead to the placement of a radio telescope for use by astronomers, something that would help 'fill a void' in man's knowledge of the universe, Zou said. 

Radio transmissions from Earth are unable to reach the moon's far side, making it an excellent location for sensitive instruments. 

China's next lunar mission is scheduled for 2017, when it will attempt to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon before returning to Earth with samples. If successful, that would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to have carried out such a maneuver.