Yutu (Jade Rabbit), China

Yutu (literally "Jade Rabbit") is an unmanned Chinese lunar rover which forms part of the Chang'e 3 mission to the Moon. It was launched at 17:30 UTC on 1 December 2013, and reached the Moon's surface on 14 December 2013.

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China launches "Jade Rabbit," a rover that is being sent to the moon to study the lunar surface.

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Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," is an unmanned lunar rover that was part of the Chinese Chang'e 3 Moon mission. It reached the lunar surface in mid-December 2013. It was the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976, and the first rover to operate there since the Soviet Lunokhod 2 mission ended in May 1973.

Yutu encountered operational difficulties after about a month on the Moon, and was unable to move after the end of the second lunar night. It continued to gather useful information for some months afterward. In October 2015, Yutu set the record for the longest operational period for a rover on the Moon.

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The rover for China’s Chang'e-4 lunar mission was presented in Beijing on 14 August 2018. The Chang'e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover) is scheduled to launch in December 2018 and will land in the Aitken crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon. Wu Weiren, chief designer of the lunar exploration program, presented the rover.

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A Long March-3B rocket launched China’s Chang’e-4 lunar mission from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 7 December 2018, at 18:23 UTC (8 December at 02:23 local time). The Chang'e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover) is scheduled to land in the Aitken crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon.

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China’s Chang’e-4 lunar mission was launched by a Long March-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 7 December 2018, at 18:23 UTC (8 December at 02:23 local time). The Chang'e-4 (嫦娥四号) lunar mission (lander and rover) is scheduled to land in the Aitken crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon.

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China has embarked on a first-of-its-kind lunar mission with the launch of the Chang'e-4. Also, researchers at MIT have demonstrated that plants can drive robots, and Deepmind's Alpha Zero A.I. reaches a critical turning point.

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China’s Chang'e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover) landed in the Von Karman Crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019, at 02:26 UTC (10:26 Beijing time). The Chang’e-4 lunar mission was launched by a Long March-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 7 December 2018, at 18:23 UTC (8 December at 02:23 local time).

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First-rate work there, really.

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The Chang’e-4 rover, named Yutu-2 (玉兔二号, Jade Rabbit-2), was deployed onto the surface of the Von Karman Crater, on 3 January 2019, at 14:22 UTC (22:22 Beijing time). The Von Karman Crater is located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon. China’s Chang’e-4 (嫦娥四号) lunar mission landed in the crater on 3 January 2019, at 02:26 UTC (10:26 Beijing time). Communications with Earth are provided by the relay satellite Queqiao (鹊桥, Magpie Bridge).

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The International Astronomical Union has approved official names for five sites on the far side of the Moon. Chang’e-4’s landing site was named Statio Tianhe from Statio – Latin for outpost, station, and Tianhe – Chinese name for the Milky Way. Zhinyu, Hegu and Tianjin correspond to characters in the folk tale “The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl”, which references Tianhe as the sky river that separated Niulang and Zhinyu.
Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/China National Space Administration (CNSA)

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China’s Chang’e-4 mission on the far side of the Moon returned observations made by the Lunar Penetrating Radar onboard the Yutu-2 rover. Chang’e-4 landed in the Von Karman Crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019, at 02:26 UTC (10:26 Beijing time). Chang’e-4’s landing site was named Statio Tianhe
Credits
Research:
The Moon’s farside shallow subsurface structure unveiled by Chang’E-4 Lunar Penetrating Radar
Chunlai Li, Yan Su, Elena Pettinelli, Shuguo Xing1, Chunyu Ding, Jianjun Liu, Xin Ren, Sebastian E. Lauro, Francesco Soldovieri, Xingguo Zeng, Xingye Gao, Wangli Chen, Shun Dai, Dawei Liu, Guangliang Zhang, Wei Zuo, Weibin Wen, Zhoubin Zhang, Xiaoxia Zhang and Hongbo Zhang
Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay6898
Video footage: China Central Television (CCTV)

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The Yutu-2 rover has traveled over 1000 metres, since its landing in the Von Karman Crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019. According to mission specialists, the Chang’e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 rover are in good working condition, with the rover travelling northwest to a basalt region. Chang’e-4’s landing site was named Statio Tianhe.

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Based on the data collected by Yutu-2, the Chang’e-4 mission’s rover, researchers propose new hypothesis on the formation of the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon. The Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 rover have been switched to dormant mode on 5 July 2022, for the duration of the lunar night (14 days on Earth).
Credit:
China Central Television (CCTV)
Radiative Transfer Modeling of Chang'e-4 Spectroscopic Observations and Interpretation of the South Pole-Aitken Compositional Anomaly
Jian Chen, Zongcheng Ling, Bradley L. Jolliff, Lingzhi Sun, Le Qiao, Jianzhong Liu, Xiaohui Fu, Jiang Zhang, Bo Li, Changqing Liu, Xiaobin Qi, Xuejin Lu, Zhiping He, and Rui Xu
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 931, Number 2; DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ac6e6c

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According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the Chang’e-6 mission will return samples from the far side of the Moon. According to Liu Jizhong (director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center), the Chang’e-6 (嫦娥六) probe is almost completed and the mission is expected to be launched in 2024.

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According to the China National Space Administration, Yutu-2 has traveled 1613 metres since 3 January 2019 in the Aitken Basin, on the far side of the Moon.

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