China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon

wmd_2008

signalfire
I've been comparing photos of this with some NASA ones, and you *can* see stars in these pictures; I don't think it's an artifact of my computer screen. Pull this up, click on it to enlarge and then look closely at the sky. There's one 'star' that is probably a planet and easy to find; tilt your screen a bit and you can make out hundreds of stars, unless my laptop screen has pixel issues. There's a lot of variance of brightness in them, and you can almost make out constellations, but there's really too many to do that. It's really a shame and a wonder why NASA didn't see fit to take some photos of Saturn in all those missions from the moon. Didn't they have a telescope on the lander or the orbiter? At least binoculars?

NASA

This was on the film backs for the Apollo Hasselblad cameras shutter speed 1/250 or 1/125th of a second apertures f5.6, 8 or 11 also the film wasn't high speed.

64 ASA if my memory serves me correctly?

Imagewerx

wmd_2008

signalfire
I've been comparing photos of this with some NASA ones, and you *can* see stars in these pictures; I don't think it's an artifact of my computer screen. Pull this up, click on it to enlarge and then look closely at the sky. There's one 'star' that is probably a planet and easy to find; tilt your screen a bit and you can make out hundreds of stars, unless my laptop screen has pixel issues. There's a lot of variance of brightness in them, and you can almost make out constellations, but there's really too many to do that. It's really a shame and a wonder why NASA didn't see fit to take some photos of Saturn in all those missions from the moon. Didn't they have a telescope on the lander or the orbiter? At least binoculars?

NASA

This was on the film backs for the Apollo Hasselblad cameras shutter speed 1/250 or 1/125th of a second apertures f5.6, 8 or 11 also the film wasn't high speed.

64 ASA if my memory serves me correctly?

Yes I think you are right !

Here's a pretty panorama from the lander, from the first lunar day of operations.



The individual images are at www.chinanews.com...

My Photosynth panorama: photosynth.net...

And with auto-color correction in Photoshop:
photosynth.net...

Check out this amazing 360-degree panorama from the lander, assembled by Andrew Bodrov: www.360cities.net...

Click "Hide Controls" and go "Fullscreen". Makes you feel like you're there.

The colour camera that took this panorama didn't survive the cold lunar night (it didn't have any means to keep itself warm), so unfortunately we will not see any more such colour images or panoramas from the lander. All cameras on the rover Yutu are still functioning, thankfully.

i heard that Jade Rabbit has broken down.

shame, wanted more pics

reply to post by SkuzzleButt

Yes, but we don't hear much about it.

Made in China you know, shame.

Click me

Mianeye
reply to post by SkuzzleButt

 

Yes, but we don't hear much about it.

Made in China you know, shame.

Click me

edit on 28-1-2014 by Mianeye because: (no reason given)

I heard about the rover's technical problems on CNN, and read about it on regular msm websites.

Are the problems with Jade Rabbit possibly related to the Keep Out Zones? Or NASA's laser weapons platforms, LRO and LADEE?
This could be a space war going on here!

SayonaraJupiter
Are the problems with Jade Rabbit possibly related to the Keep Out Zones? Or NASA's laser weapons platforms, LRO and LADEE?
This could be a space war going on here!

Yeah, yeah that's right that's exactly what it is.

Oh wait though, Yutu is nowhere near any of the Apollo landing sites and the LRO and LADEE are not laser weapons platforms, in the same way that the CD player in my higi is not a laser weapon platform. Oh, so maybe not then - maybe it's just the cold and dust damaging the electronics in an "Occam's Razor" perfectly simple explanation kind of way.

Holding breath for li'l Yutu www.universetoday.com...

"Based on unofficial accounts, it appears that one of the solar panels did not fold back properly over Yutu’s mast after it was lowered to the required horizontal position into a warmed box to shield and protect it from the extremely frigid lunar night time temperatures.

That could potentially spell doom for the mast mounted instruments and electronic systems, including the color and navigation cameras and the high gain antenna, if true."

wildespace
Holding breath for li'l Yutu

Me too (holding my breath for Yutu). This is China's first attempt at lunar soft landing and lunar roving. The Americans and the Russians did this over 40 years ago, but they went step by step. China is going for broke it seems...

The best scientific approach to the moon is to first land several soft landers, with precision, that's what USA and Russia did. The next step is to add a rover. China did 2 or 3 steps at once so maybe they got a little over ambitious...

onebigmonkey

SayonaraJupiter
Are the problems with Jade Rabbit possibly related to the Keep Out Zones? Or NASA's laser weapons platforms, LRO and LADEE?
This could be a space war going on here!

Yeah, yeah that's right that's exactly what it is.

Oh wait though, Yutu is nowhere near any of the Apollo landing sites and the LRO and LADEE are not laser weapons platforms, in the same way that the CD player in my higi is not a laser weapon platform. Oh, so maybe not then - maybe it's just the cold and dust damaging the electronics in an "Occam's Razor" perfectly simple explanation kind of way.

I can always spot a bluff when they mention the Occam's Razor. Nixon taught me a lot about poker strategies you sir, are a bluffer extraordinaire.

The main problem is, if you use the "Occam's Razor" too many times the edge will start to go dull. Rather than a clean shearing of the stubble Occam's Razor rips flesh and merely saws at the stubble.

You are using Occam's Razor to argue first as a straw man, second as means to threaten and intimidate but science is not about threats or intimidation, that's why you will fail. Please be advised that your use of Occam's Razor in this discussion is a self delusion, you have constructed this argument in order to satisfy your incredible questions about the Apollo program and those questions lead directly to what NASA is hiding on the moon and this explains why the Yutu has been attacked by space lasers.

Considering the fact that the moon is so close to earth and it takes only 3 days for a space craft to be launched and landed on the moon should we expect the Chinese to propose and execute a pitched effort, like the Howard Hughes Surveyor?

If there was a serious effort to perform soft-landings on the moon that effort could include a program with 7-10 missions. This is where Occam's Razor really comes in to play.

The Occam's Razor way to explore the moon is to go step by step... not to gamble for all the chips with one mission. How does that work for Apollo?

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


Chinese did explore the Moon step by step. Chang'e 1 and 2 orbited the Moon and mapped it in high detail. Chang'e 3 lander has had a very successful landing and is in full operation (apart from that colour camera which wasn't designed to survive the lunar night). Yutu rover was also a successful venture, if you don't count this single accident. Yutu may yet survive.

Sending landers to the Moon is costly, so I can't blame China for including a rover on their first lander mission. America had lost of money and time to do all those lander missions, perhaps something that China doesn't want to expend. Besides, NASA's martian rovers also had accidents. Accidents happen, the exploration has to go on. I don't think a series of soft landers would make a rover mission immune to accidents.

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


Nixon taught you more about lying and cheating your way through a campaign.

Don't put words in my mouth. I cited Occam's razor correctly, not as a strawman to obfuscate and confuse but to provide the simplest answer: it broke. Your explanation relies on absolute nonsense and has no basis in fact, and your ad hominem reply speaks volumes about your lack of supporting evidence for any of the claims you make.