China's 'Jade Rabbit' lunar rover declared dead: media

[Buster's Uncle]

China's 'Jade Rabbit' lunar rover declared dead: media
AFP
32 minutes ago



This screen grab taken from CCTV footage shows a photo of the Jade Rabbit moon rover taken by the Chang'e-3 probe lander on December 15, 2013 (AFP Photo/Cctv)



Beijing (AFP) - China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover has died on the surface of the moon, state media reported Wednesday, in a major setback for the country's ambitious space programme.

The country's first moon rover "could not be restored to full function", the state-owned China News Service said in a brief report, after the landmark mission ran into mechanical problems last month.

The Jade Rabbit, or Yutu in Chinese, was deployed on the moon's surface on December 15 and was a huge source of pride in China, only the third country to complete a lunar rover mission after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The landing was a key step forward in Beijing's ambitious military-run space programme, which include plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually sending a human to the moon.

The silver rover experienced a "mechanical control abnormality" late January due to "the complicated lunar surface environment", according to the official Xinhua news agency, and was unable to function since then.

Condolences poured in on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, where Internet users mourned the demise of the rover, China News Service said in its brief report titled "Loss of lunar rover".

The Jade Rabbit rover had sent back its first pictures from the moon, and officials lauded the first lunar soft landing in nearly four decades as a step forward for "mankind as a whole".

"Exploration of outer space is an unremitting pursuit of mankind," China's space agency, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said after the rover was deployed on the moon.

The mission reflects "the new glory of China to scale the peaks in world science and technology areas," it said, adding it was committed to exploring and using space "for peaceful purposes".

The lunar mission, which came a decade after China first sent an astronaut into space, was seen as a symbol of the country's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-impoverished nation.

Beijing plans to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send a human to the moon.

The potential to extract the moon's resources has been touted as a key reason behind Beijing's space programme, with the moon believed to hold uranium, titanium, and other mineral resources, as well as offering the possibility of solar power generation.


http://news.yahoo.com/china-39-39-jade-rabbit-39-lunar-rover-175625972.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China's first moon rover is broken beyond repair
By Jacob Kastrenakes on February 12, 2014 10:36 am






The journey is over for China's moon rover. China's state news agency is reporting today that the country's space agency has not been able to restore function to the Jade Rabbit rover, which suffered a mechanical malfunction late last month. The rover initially malfunctioned as it was preparing for the two-week lunar night, a period where it would be exposed to extreme cold temperatures and be unable to receive solar power. It likely failed to enter its hibernation mode, exposing critical components to environmental hazards for the past two weeks.

New Scientist reports that China's space agency would have been unable to communicate with its rover during the lunar night, meaning it wasn't able to attempt to reconnect with Jade Rabbit until Monday. China's moon lander, the Chang'e-3, appears to have successfully entered and exited hibernation, but the space agency's three-month-long mission will still be cut short without use of the rover. Chang'e-3 and Jade Rabbit, China's first lunar rover, initially landed on the moon on December 14th. The country's news agency did not say how — or if — the mission might proceed from here.


http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/12/5404378/jade-rabbit-yutu-china-moon-rover-fails-after-malfunction