Will the lunar rover “Jade Rabbit” have company during the upcoming Lantern Festival?

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — China’s lunar rover Yutu-2 has captured people’s fantasies regarding the moon on this unique day, the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Rabbit.

This year’s festival falls on Sunday, the 15th day of the first month in the Chinese lunar calendar, when the moon is full.

The Moon, being the closest celestial body to Earth, was humanity’s first stop when the “era of space travel” began. From lunar probes and unmanned lunar rovers to manned moon landings, human exploration of the moon has never stopped.

On the surface of the moon covered with large and small impact craters, a shallow path on the lunar soil extends for a long distance – this is the image of the surface of the moon sent back by China’s lunar rover Yutu-2. The Chinese probe, Chang’e-4, which carried Yutu-2 to the moon, was the first human probe to achieve a soft landing on the dark side of the moon.

Yutu-2 remains the only operational lunar rover. For more than 4 years, it has covered a distance of nearly 1,500 metres, and has generated more than 940.1 gigabytes of scientific data.

The Lunar Rover is a lander that can travel on the surface of the Moon. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union and the United States respectively sent lunar rovers to land on the moon. Lunakhod 1, launched by the Soviet Union, was the world’s first unmanned lunar rover. I landed in the Bahr al-Ramat area in November 1970 and worked there for regarding 10 months. Hence, the Soviet Union sent the unmanned Lunakhod-2 spacecraft to the Sea of ​​Tranquility in January 1973, where it was damaged regarding 4 months later.

The other three lunar rovers launched during the same period were manned lunar rovers, which were carried aboard the US Apollo 15, 16 and 17 spacecraft. They were used in the early seventies as vehicles for astronauts to inspect the surface of the moon, but they are currently not qualified.

Notably, only two lunar rovers have succeeded in landing on the lunar surface since then, both from China: Yutu, which landed in 2013, and Yutu-2, which landed in 2019.

Yuetu, or jade rabbit, is known as the pet of the lunar deity Chang’e in Chinese mythology. The common bond between the rabbit and Earth’s only natural satellite prompted China to name its first lunar rover Yutu.

Currently, Yutu-2 is the only working rover on the lunar surface, silently exploring the secrets of the far side of the moon among rocks and empty craters.

In view of this, Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration program and also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that China will fully promote the fourth phase of the lunar exploration program in 2023, including the “Chang’e-6” and “Chang’e-6”. 7 and Chang’e-8.

Chang’e-6 will “collect samples from the far side of the moon and bring them to Earth, with the goal of collecting 2,000 grams,” Wu said.

Meanwhile, Wu noted, “Chang’e-7” will land on the lunar south pole and fly to search for water, while “Chang’e-8”, which will be launched in 2028, will form the basis of the scientific research station with “Chang’e-7”. on the south pole of the moon, adding that the station will include a lunar orbiter, lander, rover, flying vehicle, and multiple scientific instruments.

On the one hand, he continued, the tasks are to search for water. On the other hand, it is to explore the far side of the moon, its topography, the physical composition of its environment, and more.

It is likely that the “Jade Rabbit” vehicle will not feel lonely this year. Another vehicle will launch the “White Rabbit” to the Moon to accompany it soon. The Japanese lander “Hakuto-R Mission 1”, developed by Japan’s iSpace Corporation, is expected to make a soft landing on the lunar Atlas crater in April.

Meanwhile, “Danuri,” South Korea’s first lunar orbiter, was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early August last year, and reached lunar orbit in December. Recently, it sends back pictures of the lunar surface.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Lunar Flashlight spacecraft will enter lunar orbit this year, where it will use near-infrared lasers and an onboard spectrometer to permanently map ice in shaded regions near the moon’s south pole. . Besides, NASA is doing its best to develop a vibrating pole exploration rover, or “Viber”. This portable golf cart-sized robot will land on the moon’s south pole in 2024 on a 100-day mission to search for water and ice.

At the same time, many other countries are pushing for lunar exploration missions this year. Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, is scheduled to be launched this year following several delays. It is reported that the country aims to place a lander and a rover on the highlands near the south pole of the moon.

On the other hand, Russia plans to launch the Luna-25 lunar probe this year, whose main tasks include testing soft landing techniques and conducting communication studies of the lunar south pole.

It should be noted that these missions are wonderful examples of human intelligence and curiosity, and their work together to explore the secrets of the moon.