China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon

China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon


The Jade Rabbit, seen in this artist's impression, is the first wheeled vehicle on the Moon since the 1970s

China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, a major step in its programme of space exploration.

On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module underwent a powered descent, using thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon in 37 years.

Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".

The touchdown will took place on a flat plain called the Bay of Rainbows.

The Chang'e-3 mission launched on a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket on 1 December from Xichang in the country's south.

China is saying: 'We are doing something that only two other countries have done before - the US and the Soviet Union”


State television showed pictures of the moon's surface as the Chang'e 3 lander touched down.

The task was described as the mission's "most difficult" in the post, written by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on behalf of the space authorities.

It is the third robotic rover mission to land on the lunar surface, but the Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.

The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour.

Its name - chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters - derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.

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Wonder if their rover goes to one of the sites America landed on the moon, would be interesting if they did....

reply to post by scotsdavy1


Well. I also hope they do take som Pictures of the sky above the rover so we can see if there are some stars there or if its completely dark.

scotsdavy1
Wonder if their rover goes to one of the sites America landed on the moon, would be interesting if they did....

The site is far away from the American landings (another thread on this has pics and a map). Here's a link to the map pic post on the thread www.abovetopsecret.com... , or, better yet:



The numbers are the landing sites of the Apollo missions, the arrow is where the Chinese are going to rove.

Here is the mission's Wikipedia page:

en.wikipedia.org...



Does anyone know if the rover will have live feed that China will broadcast? Thanks. It's not clear on the Wikipedia page. But here's an interesting instrument on the rover:

The rover carries a ground-penetrating radar on its underside, allowing for the first direct measurement of the structure and depth of the lunar soil down to a depth of 30 m (98 ft), and investigation of the lunar crust structure down to several hundred meters deep.

This just in, China moon rover had knocked over the American Flag on the moon!!

.....Joking....

Great achievement for China. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

reply to post by scotsdavy1



Long live Jade Rabbit...

They are searching for the new walmart build site (sorry) This is what happens when you fill your landfills with chinese junk, shipping all of your jobs overseas. Basically, they do most everything with former US funds. Spend, spend, they want Mars next, buy some more crap amerikka, it is christmas, support the chinese economy.....fund your own demise...

reply to post by Aleister


Couldn't see any detail of streaming images, I hope there are, but this page goes into a lot of detail with some nice pics, thought I'd share:

live.china.org.cn...

Enjoy

Live pictures would be good and as another poster mentioned, will see if they pick up the stars from the moon as well....

scotsdavy1
will see if they pick up the stars from the moon as well....

Why would you expect the cameras to pick up stars if the exposure is set for viewing the surface?

Is it because being "in space" somehow magically changes the laws of optics?

Waits for the 'They never landed on the moon and its all done in a parking lot in beijing' threads

Do not expect to see any stars in the rover's day time pictures. The only way we would see stars during lunar day time is if they over expose any images, which will result in a very bright, washed out terrain.

If they take any images during the lunar night (when the moon is close to the New Moon phase), we might get to see stars then.

alfa1

scotsdavy1
will see if they pick up the stars from the moon as well....

Why would you expect the cameras to pick up stars if the exposure is set for viewing the surface?

Is it because being "in space" somehow magically changes the laws of optics?

Was just a thought, you don't need to be so sarcastic

Maxatoria
Waits for the 'They never landed on the moon and its all done in a parking lot in beijing' threads

Shanghai... It's done in Shanghai. Come on, you know that.

Instead of buying stuff that says, made in China, it will be, made on the moon now

reply to post by Aleister

The rover carries a ground-penetrating radar on its underside, allowing for the first direct measurement of the structure and depth of the lunar soil down to a depth of 30 m (98 ft), and investigation of the lunar crust structure down to several hundred meters deep.

This is exciting stuff and I hope very much here that China is in the spirit of giving, in terms of telling the world what they've found when the data is sorted and made sense of.

I'm dying to know what the structure is below the dust. Is it rock? Is it honeycombed like the Missouri Ozarks with tunnels, caverns and other natural formations? (oooo.... natural base made for us. Just make airtight and decorate as needed).

This could be a fun time for folks with strong focus upward.

Of course.. We could have the shock of humanity and see them run multiple GPR passes ....to see things change in formation down below. Indicating movement a reaction from something other than pure rock.

Maxatoria
Waits for the 'They never landed on the moon and its all done in a parking lot in beijing' threads

Also waiting for the "they're not telling us everything--they found structures" crowd.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Wrabbit... when where you going to tell us that your from chinese descent? It all makes sense now..Lol

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Don't be Surprised if this Chinese Rover Suddenly breaks down and has it's signal lost by their Scientists on earth . No one Really knows what is on our Moon left there by the U.S. or Something Else..........

I see we already have two of the don't-question-anything-about-the-official-moon-story people on here already making jest about people that like to question things.

Interesting thread! Wasn't there something saying that the moon rang or vibrated when they crashed/exploded something on the surface? It will be interesting to look at the Chinese data!