23.10.2019
Here's What China's Yutu 2 Rover Found on the Far Side of the Moon
China's Yutu 2 moon rover captured this image of glassy material from the edge of a small crater.
The China Lunar Exploration Program has released a photo from the Yutu 2 moon rover that reveals the likely nature of a previously unidentified material.
The rover — part of the Chang'e 4 mission, which in January completed the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon — made the discovery in July. Earlier reports on the few published details captured widespread interest.
The photo taken by Yutu 2's main camera shows the center of a crater containing material that is colored differently than its surroundings and that contains bright spots. The image was released by Our Space, a Chinese-language science-outreach publication, via its Weibo social media account on Oct. 8.
A desaturated, high-contrast version of the material viewed by Yutu 2.
While gaining the attention of the Yutu 2 team, the material does not appear altogether mysterious, as claimed by Chinese media.
Clive Neal, a lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, told Space.com that the new image reinforces the previous suggestion that the material is broadly similar in nature to a sample of impact glass found during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Sample 70019, collected by astronaut and trained geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, is made of dark, broken fragments of minerals cemented together and black, shiny glass. Impact melt glass can be created or modified through high-speed meteor impacts on a planetary surface.
Dan Moriarty, NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has analyzed and processed the image, seeking clues as to its precise nature. While this compressed image lacks a lot of the useful information a raw image would contain, Moriarty said he could gain insights by adjusting parameters.
Yutu 2 looks back over tracks made from the Chang’e 4 lander in July.
"The shape of the fragments appears fairly similar to other materials in the area. What this tells us is that this material has a similar history as the surrounding material," Moriarty said. "It was broken up and fractured by impacts on the lunar surface, just like the surrounding soil.
"I think the most reliable information here is that the material is relatively dark. It appears to have brighter material embedded within the larger, darker regions, although there is a chance that is light glinting off a smooth surface," Moriarty told Space.com, adding that the material is likely heterogeneous in composition.
The image also gives an idea of the origin of the substance. Moriarty said the material may have been excavated by the crater-forming impact or it may be a breccia, containing highlands crust, glass, impactor material and basalts from the volcanic "seas" known as mare. "But we're definitely looking at a rock," Moriarty concluded.
China's Yutu 2 moon rover captured this image from the edge of the small crater.
Far side find
Yutu 2 has been making its way west from the Chang'e 4 landing site, which is situated within the roughly 110-mile-wide (180 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater. On July 28, during Lunar Day 8 of the mission, the rover came across a crater about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter containing a material deemed to have an unusual color and luster.
The initial discovery was made by a Yutu 2 drive team member checking images from the rover's main camera. The drive team consulted lunar scientists, resulting in the decision to postpone plans to have Yutu 2 continue west and instead order the rover to check out the strange material.
Our Space, which announced the findings on Aug. 17, used the term "胶状物" ("jiao zhuang wu"), which can be translated as "gel-like." This description sparked wide interest and speculation among lunar scientists.
The first images of the crater and its contents came from an obstacle-avoidance camera. These images did not, however, have a high resolution, and they included colored shapes likely related to Yutu 2's science instruments, further obscuring the material.
Yutu 2 made a number of approaches to the material to analyze it using the rover's Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS), which detects light that is scattered or reflected off materials to reveal their makeup.
The small adjustments in orientation and roving tested the rover and its team, with the danger that Yutu 2 could fall into and become stuck in the crater. The movement of the sun across the sky also altered shadowing and affected results.
A second set of measurements, taken in August, was apparently more successful than the first, but results from VNIS have not been announced.
Yutu 2 has driven a total of 950 feet (289 m) across 10 lunar days. Yutu 2 and the Chang'e 4 lander power down to hibernate during the roughly two-week-long lunar nights, when temperatures can drop to as low as minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 190 degrees Celsius).
Sunrise over the landing site in Von Kármán Crater occurred Oct. 21; Yutu 2 will wake for Lunar Day 11 on Oct. 22, and the lander will do so about 24 hours later.
Quelle: SC
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China's Chang'e-4 probe resumes work for 11th lunar day
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 11th lunar day on the far side of the moon after "sleeping" during the extremely cold night.
The lander woke up at 5:11 a.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time), and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday. Both are in normal working conditions, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The rover has traveled about 290 meters on the moon to conduct scientific exploration on the virgin territory.
The Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe switched to a dormant mode during the lunar night due to the lack of solar power.
Quelle:Xinhua
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Update: 5.11.2019
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China's lunar rover travels over 300 meters on moon's far side
China's lunar rover Yutu-2 has driven 318.62 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory.
Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have ended their work for the 11th lunar day, and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night on Monday (Beijing time), according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The rover is now located 218.11 meters northwest of the lander.
China's Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3.
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, a lunar night the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe switches to dormant mode during the lunar night due to a lack of solar power.
During the 11th lunar day of the probe on the moon, the scientific instruments on the lander and rover worked well, and a new batch of scientific detection data was sent to the core research team for analysis.
Scientists are planning the future exploration route for the rover.
As a result of the tidal locking effect, the moon's revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, and the same side always faces Earth.
The far side of the moon has unique features, and scientists expect Chang'e-4 could bring breakthrough findings.
The scientific tasks of the Chang'e-4 mission include conducting low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure and measuring neutron radiation and neutral atoms.
The Chang'e-4 mission embodies China's hope to combine wisdom in space exploration with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
Quelle: Xinhua
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Update: 22.11.2019
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China's Chang'e-4 probe resumes work for 12th lunar day
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 12th lunar day on the far side of the moon after "sleeping" during the extremely cold night.
The lander woke up at 5:03 p.m. Thursday (Beijing Time), and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 0:51 a.m. the same day. Both are in normal working order, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The rover has traveled about 319 meters on the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory.
The Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe switched to dormant mode during the lunar night due to the lack of solar power.
Quelle: Xinhua
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Update: 4.12.2019
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China's lunar rover travels over 345 meters on moon's far side
China's lunar rover Yutu-2 has driven 345.059 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory.
Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have ended their work for the 12th lunar day, and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night, the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said Wednesday.
Due to the complicated geological environment and the rugged and heavily cratered terrain on the far side of the moon, Chinese space engineers carefully planned the driving routes of the rover to ensure its safety.
Driving slowly but steadily, the Yutu-2 is expected to continue traveling on the moon and make more scientific discoveries, said CNSA.
China's Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe switches to dormant mode during the lunar night due to a lack of solar power.
China's lunar rover Jade Rabbit-2 breaks record of working time on Moon
China's Jade Rabbit-2, or Yutu-2, has become the longest-working lunar rover on the moon, as it started to work for the 13th lunar day on the far side of the moon.
Previously the record was held by Lunokhod 1, the Soviet robotic rover that became the world's first to be sent to the moon in 1970, where it worked for about 10 months.
China's Chang'e-4 probe including a lander and Jade Rabbit-2, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
Both the lander and rover have resumed work for the 13th lunar day after laying dormant during the extremely cold night, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The lander woke up at 5:14 a.m. Saturday (Beijing time), and the rover awoke at 6:43 p.m. Friday. Both are in normal working order.
The rover has driven more than 345 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct a scientific exploration of the virgin territory.
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe switches to dormant mode during the lunar night due to a lack of solar power.
The scientific tasks of the Chang'e-4 mission include conducting low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure and measuring neutron radiation and neutral atoms.
The Chang'e-4 mission embodies China's hope to combine wisdom in space exploration with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
China's lunar rover travels over 357 meters on moon's far side
China's lunar rover Yutu-2 has driven 357.695 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory.
Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have ended their work for the 13th lunar day on Thursday (Beijing time), and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The scientific instruments on the lander and rover worked as planned. The rover conducted explorations of several sites and photographed and conducted an infrared detection of a stone on the lunar surface, said the center.
China's Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the lunar landing of the Chang'e-4 probe.
The landing site of the probe has been named "Statio Tianhe." "Tianhe" is the Chinese word for the Milky Way and "Statio" is Latin for base.
Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, has worked much longer than its three-month design life, becoming the longest-working lunar rover on the moon.
The rover has found materials from deep inside the moon that could help unravel the mystery of the lunar mantle's composition and the formation and evolution of the moon and the earth.
Using data obtained by the visible and near-infrared spectrometer installed on Yutu-2, Chinese scientists found that the lunar soil in the landing area of the Chang'e-4 probe contains olivine and pyroxene which came from the lunar mantle deep inside the moon.
Due to the complicated geological environment and the rugged and heavily cratered terrain on the far side of the moon, the rover drives slowly but steadily and is expected to continue traveling on the moon and make more scientific discoveries.
In order to provide a communication link between the far side of the moon and the ground control, China sent the relay satellite Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge, into the halo orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the earth-moon system, nearly 500,000 km from the earth.
Zhang Lihua, chief designer of Queqiao, said the satellite has been working well and is able to continue its operation for another 10 years.
"We will let Queqiao work as long as possible. It could also provide communication for probes from other countries if they intend to explore the moon's far side within the lifetime of the satellite," Ye Peijian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a senior space expert, said earlier.
Quelle: Xinhua