{"id":7297,"date":"2014-04-11T21:38:08","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T21:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7297"},"modified":"2014-04-11T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T21:38:08","slug":"update-on-change-3-mission-and-yutu-rover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7297","title":{"rendered":"Update on Chang’e 3 mission and Yutu rover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a summary at The Planetary Society<\/a>\u00a0of the Chinese Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover mission accomplishments and status:\u00a0Yutu Update – The Planetary Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the rover did not arrive at the crater, or even reach the lander. It stopped as it was getting close to the lander, apparently because the electronics associated with moving its wheels and solar panels, so probably an important central control unit, failed at that point. I don\u2019t know when it stopped, but the map shown at LPSC is instructive. It shows the daily stops between drives (the rover was only operated when in direct contact with China, for at most half a day at a time), and counting them suggests the fault occurred in the middle part of the day, possibly due to excessive heating which might have been exacerbated by dust buildup on the rover body. But this is conjecture, as I don\u2019t know that each stop occupied only one day.<\/em><\/p>\n

At any rate, it soon became apparent that the rover could neither move nor fold itself up to protect against the cold of the night. Enormous efforts were made to overcome this, to no avail. As night approached\u00a0the problem was made public<\/a>, most memorably by\u00a0the rover\u2019s Twitter alter-ego itself<\/a>. Meanwhile the lander continued operating, and I\u2019ll come back to that later. Sunset, and possibly the end of Yutu\u2019s short life, came on 25 January. After a seemingly interminable wait the sun rose again, and a few days later on 12 February\u00a0both lander and rover woke up<\/a>. Yutu was more robust than expected. All its instruments, even the fragile cameras, were fine, but\u00a0it couldn\u2019t move<\/a>. I don\u2019t know if the lack of movement extends to the robotic arm with the APXS. The instruments may work, but future science would be very limited if the NIR spectrometer and the ground-penetrating radar are limited to always making the same observation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Panorama-Jan2014_Segment_500x342\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a summary at The Planetary Society\u00a0of the Chinese Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover mission accomplishments and status:\u00a0Yutu Update – The Planetary Society. But the rover did not arrive at the crater, or even reach the lander. It stopped as it was getting close to the lander, apparently because the electronics associated with moving … Continue reading Update on Chang’e 3 mission and Yutu rover<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,13,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese-space","category-space-science","category-the-moon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-1TH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12144,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12144","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":0},"title":"Chinese release images taken by lunar lander and rover","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A large gallery of images of the Moon and the lunar surface taken by the Chinese lander Chang\u2019e-3 and the Yutu rover have been released: China releases hundreds of moon images to public - \u00a0Globalnews.ca Yutu gallery - The Science and Application Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"Change3_a","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Change3_a-1024x594.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5464,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5464","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":1},"title":"Chinese Chang’e 3 lunar lander soon to launch","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Chinese are expected to launch the\u00a0Chang'e 3\u00a0lunar lander this Sunday, December 1st. This would be the first spacecraft to make a\u00a0soft landing\u00a0on the Moon since the\u00a0Soviet Union did it with the\u00a0Luna 24\u00a0rover in 1976. [] Here's a map of the Moon showing where the landing is expected to occur.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=hobbyspace&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5707,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5707","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":2},"title":"Chang’e 3 update: Pictures from Yutu","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"11:30 am ET: Some info from the CCTV discussion before it ended: Several instruments on the vehicles are now working such as the ground-penetrating radar The rover will hibernate between Dec 16 to 23 to avoid the heat of the lunar noon. Lander and rover will hibernate during the two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"ControlRoom2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ControlRoom2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17517,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17517","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":3},"title":"Chang’e-4: Latest images and videos from lander and rover on lunar far side","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Controllers of the Chinese space Chang'e-4 lander and Yutu-2 rover have reactivated the two systems after a standby period during the most intense period of solar heat during the lunar day. Various scientific instruments are being activated, the rover will soon being roving, and cameras are taking pictures such as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20190110-change4-yutu2-first-panorama_f840.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5819,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5819","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":4},"title":"Yutu begins its roving of the Moon","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Emily Lakdawalla\u00a0at the Planetary Society has posted some reports and lots of pictures on the status and plans for the Chinese Chang'e 3 lander and Yutu rover on the Moon: Chang'e 3 and LADEE updates: Yutu active again, LADEE didn't detect landing - The Planetary Society Chang'e 3 update with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5702,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5702","url_meta":{"origin":7297,"position":5},"title":"Chinese rover moves onto the surface of the Moon","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Yutu rover has now rolled onto the surface of the Moon from the Chang'e 3 lander. http:\/\/youtu.be\/OgfAQdKtQkE Update: More from Emily Lakdawalla\u00a0on the rover's deployment:\u00a0Six wheels on soil for Yutu! - The Planetary Society CNSA \/ CCTV \/ Emily Lakdawalla Chang'e 3 rover Yutu rolls onto the lunar surface","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese space"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese space","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/OgfAQdKtQkE\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7299,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7297\/revisions\/7299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}