The reason you seek to explore what you don't know is because you don't know what you don't know.

In general I don't think people really appreciate how ridiculously little we know about everything outside of our planet. Like for instance it was only in 2013 (!!!) that it was discovered that Mars' soil is relatively 'moist', about 2% water by mass. And that's just the topsoil layer - it's suggestive that below the surface it could well be even more moist.

But the Moon's much closer, so we must know more, right? Well water ice on the Moon was only confirmed in 2018!! [1] So actually starting to get surface samples, and explore more of the Moon, ideally with a rapid return to humans on it is so exciting because who knows what we'll find out next? The unknown is precisely what makes exploring the unknown so enticing, rewarding, and fun!

[1] - https://www.space.com/41554-water-ice-moon-surface-confirmed...

No idea what they’re expecting, but I would expect some interesting differences based on our current understanding of the geological differences between the two sides. Apparently the near side was warmed by Earth early in the Moon’s history which meant the far side cooled more quickly and developed a thicker crust.

Leaving aside all the geopolitics and bragging rights, I would imagine that one scientifc reason for trying is that since the far side gets more meteor hits, there may be more material from elsewhere in the solar system. (Having said that I know nothing about this mission and am just guessing.)

In the book Super Volcanoes, I read about how complex the moon is geologically and how little of it we've examined and how poor our understanding of the geological history is. Apparently we can't yet explain how it was geologically active so recently. Imagine if the only rock samples we had from Earth were from a couple random spots on the surface, from wildly different time periods, and trying to develop together a theory of how its geology changed over time from that.

Checkout this paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254243512...

Takeaway: The samples indeed are very different.

They hope to test their hypothesis that volcanoes on that side became inactive 4 billion years ago. Great question frankly, this article goes into it in much more detail (I just selected a likely looking blurb, there are other elements of the theory)

https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/c10523137/...

I was thinking about "what have they found there?". I remember reading that the Central Bank of China was feversly buying Gold, and a few weeks ago they stopped all buying. Then this came to focus, and it made me think... did they find 100 tons of Gold up there, and they know that if they start bringing this in (on Earth) they price will plummet, and expect a massive sell-off in the next few weeks???

But then I do read and watch too much sci-fi!!

you won't expect rock samples from New England and middle east are the same, right? The current theory is that samples collected by Chang'e 6 could be the oldest sample we ever saw from Moon. It would be worth to study and prove that.

I wonder if not being shielded by the Earth's magnetic field during full day would lead to a different balance of isotopes deposited by the solar wind.

I just learned it on the radio on my way to work this morning.

The last sample reveals something about the surface of the moon.

The sample this time is from a big, deep hole created by a heavy hit which penetrated into the core of the moon, thus reveals the internals of the moon.

It would be a good sci-fi plot to find a moon base hiding back there. Populated by aliens/your current enemy/tech billionaire mad scientist/high IQ octopi

It could also be an abandoned base.

> What are they expecting to be different about samples from the moon's far side to those previously collected?

Different bragging rights.