China’s Jade Rabbit rover rolls on to Moon’s surface
China’s Jade Rabbit robot rover has driven off its landing module and on to the Moon’s surface.
The robotic vehicle rolled down a ramp lowered by the lander and on to the volcanic plain known as Sinus Iridum.
Earlier on Saturday, the landing module containing the rover fired its thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976.
The touchdown in the Moon’s northern hemisphere marks the latest step in China’s ambitious space programme.
The lander will operate there for a year, while the rover is expected to work for some three months.
The Chang’e-3 mission landed some 12 days after being launched atop a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket from Xichang in the country’s south.
The official Xinhua news service reported that the craft began its descent just after 1300 GMT (2100 Beijing time), touching down in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) 11 minutes later.
“I was lucky enough to see a prototype rover in Shanghai a few years ago – it’s a wonderful technological achievement to have landed,” Prof Andrew Coates, from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News.
Chang’e-3 is the third unmanned rover mission to touch down on the lunar surface, and the first to go there in more than 40 years. The last was an 840kg (1,900lb) Soviet vehicle known as Lunokhod-2, which was kept warm by polonium-210.
But the six-wheeled 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.
The rover and lander are powered by solar panels but some sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs), containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night.
Reports suggest the lander and rover will photograph each other at some point on Sunday.
14.12.2013
SOURCE: BBC
