China's Jade Rabbit moon rover awake but still malfunctioning

[Buster's Uncle]

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover awake but still malfunctioning
Reuters
18 hours ago



A photograph of the giant screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center shows photo of the Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit" lunar rover taken by the camera on the Chang'e 3 probe during the mutual-photograph process, in Beijing December 15, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer



BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Jade Rabbit moon rover has endured a long lunar night but is still malfunctioning, state media said on Thursday, after technical problems last month cast uncertainty over the country's first moon landing.

Jade Rabbit, named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, landed to domestic fanfare in mid-December, on a mission to do geological surveys and hunt natural resources.

The moon buggy began experiencing "mechanical control abnormalities" late in January, when entering its second 14-day lunar night, a period that exposes the surface to extreme cold.

Scientists had said the outcome of the repair efforts would be unclear until the rover emerged from the period of darkness, during which it is supposed to shut down.

But after awakening this week, Jade Rabbit is still not functioning properly, China National Radio said, citing Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for the lunar probe program.

"It's awake. We have a signal. But the problem still hasn't been resolved," Pei said, but gave no further details.

Experts are still working to fix the rover, the official Xinhua news agency said.

China has been increasingly ambitious in developing its space programs for military, commercial and scientific purposes. But it is still playing catch-up to established space superpowers the United States and Russia.

The Jade Rabbit, and the Chang'e 3 probe that delivered it, marked the first "soft landing" on the moon since 1976, before which both the United States and the Soviet Union accomplished the feat.

The United States has successfully landed four rovers on Mars, two of which are still active. The decade-old Opportunity recently found evidence that life-friendly fresh water once pooled on the red planet's surface.


http://news.yahoo.com/china-39-jade-rabbit-moon-rover-awake-still-030113807.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China revives moon rover, but malfunction persists
Associated Press
10 hours ago



FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2013 file image taken by the on-board camera of the lunar probe Chang'e-3 and made off the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing. China's first moon rover "Yutu" - or Jade Rabbit - is on the lunar surface in the area known as Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows). China has restored communications with its space program's troubled "Jade Rabbit" moon rover, but engineers are still working to fix its mechanical problems, state media said Thursday, Feb 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Xinhua, File) NO SALES



BEIJING (AP) — China has restored communications with its space program's troubled "Jade Rabbit" moon rover, but engineers are still working to fix its mechanical problems, state media reported Thursday.

The official Xinhua News Agency cited Pei Zhaoyu, the lunar probe program's spokesman, as saying the rover had survived the frigid cold of the lunar night that started Jan. 25.

The "Jade Rabbit" rover was designed to roam the lunar surface for three months while surveying for natural resources and sending back data. But it ran into problems as it was shutting down in preparation for the lunar night, which lasts two weeks.

The problems were a rare setback for China's burgeoning space program, which in recent years has conducted space walks and placed a space station in orbit.

Pei said the rover had "come back to life" despite space experts' earlier concerns that it might not survive the extremely low temperatures of the lunar night, when the temperature drops to minus 180 degrees Celsius (minus 292 Fahrenheit).

"The rover stands a chance of being saved now that it is still alive," Pei was quoted as saying. He said it was still unclear what caused the problem.

The mission has been a popular success for China's military-backed space program. Updates on the moon rover's progress have been posted on an unofficial Chinese microblog account written with the Jade Rabbit's voice, attracting tens of thousands of comments by Chinese Internet users.


http://news.yahoo.com/china-revives-moon-rover-malfunction-persists-063104584.html