“China's first lunar rover, Yutu, could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected,” the state-owned China News Service said.
In December, the 140-kilogram lunar rover, whose name translates as Jade Rabbit, made the first soft landing of any probe on the moon in nearly four decades.
China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense reported on January 25 that the space vehicle had experienced a mechanical control abnormality because of the "complicated lunar surface environment."
The problem occurred shortly before the rover, which was meant to roam the lunar surface for three months while surveying natural resources, went into automatic shutdown for the two-week lunar night.
- The landing of the Jade Rabbit on the moon was hailed as a major success of the ambitious Chinese space program, which includes a permanent space station and manned flights to the moon and Mars.
12/2/14
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China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover 'could be saved'...
ReplyDeleteChina's first lunar rover could potentially be saved, despite experiencing mechanical problems, state media report.
The moon rover had "awoken" from its scheduled dormancy and "stands a chance of being saved", a spokesperson quoted by news agency Xinhua said.
The Jade Rabbit suffered a serious mechanical problem in January.
Its deployment on 15 December was the first successful landing on the Moon since 1976.
The lunar rover was expected to operate for about three months.
'Still alive'
Earlier reports in Chinese media had suggested that Jade Rabbit, or Yutu in Chinese, had been declared dead on the surface of the moon.
In a report entitled "loss of lunar rover", the China News Service said that the rover "could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected" and was "mourned" by Chinese social media users................http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26153520
13/2/14
China's Moon Rover Shows Signs of Life ....
DeleteChina's "Jade Rabbit" moon rover has showed signs of life, hours after being declared dead by Beijing space authorities.
A spokesman for China's lunar probe program told the official Xinhua news agency Thursday the robotic vehicle "has come back to life."
He said technicians are still working to find the cause of a "mechanical control malfunction" the rover suffered late last month.
The problem occurred as the solar-powered rover entered a sleep mode during the frigid lunar night, which lasts about 14 Earth days..............http://www.voanews.com/content/chinas-moon-rover-shows-signs-of-life/1850436.html
13/2/14
Chinese Lunar Rover, Thought Lost, Comes Back to Life....
DeleteMOSCOW, February 13 (RIA Novosti) – China’s maiden lunar rover, which had earlier been declared lost due to technical problems, has unexpectedly revived itself, the country’s state media reported Thursday.
“It has come back to life! At least it is alive and so it is possible we could save it,” Xinhua news agency quoted China’s lunar program spokesman Pei Zhaoyu as saying.
Xinhua cited Zhaoyu as writing on Chinese microblogging website Sina Weibo that the Yutu rover, whose name translates as “Jade Rabbit,” is able to pick up signals, but that it is still suffering from a mechanical control abnormality.
Chinese state media had reported that the space vehicle could not be restored to full functionality on Monday after awaking from an automatic shutdown for the two-week lunar night.
The 140-kilogram rover in December became the first probe in nearly four decades to make a soft landing on the moon.
It was meant to roam the lunar surface for three months while surveying natural resources, but an abnormality that appeared shortly before its shutdown at the end of January prompted worries that it would not survive the freezing cold of the lunar night.
The space vehicle’s mission has been hailed as a major success of the ambitious Chinese space program, whose goals include creating a permanent space station by 2020 and sending manned flights to the moon and Mars.
An unverified Weibo user under the name “Jade Rabbit Lunar Rover,” who has been posting first-person messages using the voice of the space car, marked its reawakening with the update: “Hi, anybody there?” on Thursday, sparking thousands of responses.
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140213/187493665/Chinese-Lunar-Rover-Thought-Lost-Comes-Back-to-Life.html
13/2/14