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January 26, 2014

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Technical problem with Jade Rabbit

Source: Xinhua | January 26, 2014, Sunday | Print Edition

China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover has experienced a mechanical control abnormality, and scientists are organizing repairs.

The abnormality occurred due to “the complicated lunar surface environment,” the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said yesterday, without giving further details.

The abnormality emerged before Jade Rabbit — Yutu in Chinese — entered its second dormancy at dawn yesterday as the lunar night fell, according to the administration.

The lander, another part of the Chang’e-3 probe, also “fell asleep” earlier on Friday.

The pair went dormant for two weeks about one month ago when the first lunar night of the mission occurred.

One night on the moon is about 14 days on Earth, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 degrees Celsius. During the lunar night, there is no sunlight to power Yutu’s solar panel.

After the first dormancy, the lander’s moon-based optical telescope carried out observations of the sky, while its extreme ultraviolet camera observed the plasmasphere around the Earth, according to SASTIND.

The rover obtained scientific data through its radar, panorama camera, a particle X-ray device and infrared imaging equipment, said the administration.

The Chang’e-3 lunar probe soft-landed on the moon on December 14. Yutu separated from the lander hours later.

The success of the Chang’e-3 mission makes China the third country to soft-land a spacecraft on lunar soil, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Humans have conducted a total of 130 lunar probe activities with a success rate of only about 51 percent, Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar probe program, said in an earlier interview.

China’s lunar probe missions — Chang’e-1, 2 and 3 — have all succeeded, said Wu.

However, lunar probe mission failures are not rare. In April 1962, the US lunar probe Ranger 4 crashed into the dark side of the moon after equipment failure prevented it from returning pictures and scientific data.

Japan launched a lunar probe in 1990, which soon moved off course. It failed to transmit any data and crashed into the moon in 1993.

India sent a lunar probe into space in 2008, but equipment malfunctioned several months later, leading to the loss of contact with the unmanned spacecraft.

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