China’s first lunar rover separates from Chang’e-3 moon lander early Dec. 15, 2013. Screenshot taken from the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing. Credit: Xinhua/post processing by Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer
Updated- See below Photo Gallery of Yutu’s descent to lunar surface on Dec. 15, 2013[/caption]
China’s first ever lunar rover rolled majestically onto the Moon’s soil on Sunday, Dec. 15, barely seven hours after the Chang’e-3 mothership touched down atop the lava filled plains of the Bay of Rainbows.
Check out the gallery of stunning photos and videos herein from China’s newest space spectacular atop stark lunar terrain.
The six wheeled ‘Yutu’, or Jade Rabbit, rover drove straight off a pair of ramps at 4:35 a.m. Beijing local time and sped right into the history books as it left a noticeably deep pair of tire tracks behind in the loose lunar dirt.
The stunning feat was broadcast on China’s state run CCTV using images transmitted to Earth from cameras mounted on the Chang’e-3 lander and aimed directly at the rear of the departing moon buggy.
Watch this YouTube video from CCTV showing the separation of ‘Yutu’ from the lander:
The scene was reminiscent of NASA’s Mars Sojourner rover driving of the Mars Pathfinder lander back in 1997.
Chinese space engineers based at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) carefully extended a pair of ramps out from the lander in a complex process, drove Yutu onto the ramps and then gently lowered them onto the moon’s soil.
China’s Change’-3 mission had just safely soft landed on the Moon hours only earlier on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 9:11 p.m. Beijing time, 8:11 EST at the Sinus Iridum region, or Bay of Rainbows.
China thus became only the 3rd country in the world to successfully land a spacecraft on Earth’s nearest neighbor after the United States and the Soviet Union.
It’s been nearly four decades since the prior lunar landing was accomplished by the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 sample return spacecraft.
Read my detailed account of the Chang’e-3 landing on Dec. 14 – here.
Watch this YouTube video compilation of CCTV’s Dec. 14 landing coverage:
Over 4600 images have already been transmitted by Chang’e-3 in less than a day on the Moon.
Tomorrow, the 120 kg Yutu rover will begin driving in a circle around the 1200 kg lander.
And the pair of lunar explorers will snap eagerly awaited portraits of one another!
The rover and lander are equipped with 8 science instruments multiple cameras, spectrometers, an optical telescope, ground penetrating radar and other sensors to investigate the lunar surface and composition.
The radar instrument installed at the bottom of the rover can penetrate 100 meters deep below the surface to study the Moon’s structure and composition in unprecedented detail, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, senior advisor of China’s lunar probe project, in an interview on CCTV.
China’s Chang’e-3 probe joins NASA’s newly arrived LADEE lunar probe which entered lunar orbit on Oct. 6 following a spectacular night time blastoff from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Chang’e-3, LADEE, MAVEN, MOM, Mars rover and more news.
God job!
Yes, congrats China, you got a rover to the moon in 2013…United States has 3 on Mars and had humans on the moon before 1970…good job indeed.
So tell me, what have you personally contributed to space exploration? Bet you cant even tell your arse from Uranus.
What do Layne’s personal accomplishments have to do with China’s space program? He’s simply pointing out that this isn’t a groundbreaking achievement, although China should be congratulated on their foray into becoming a space faring nation. Let’s just keep a bit of perspective. If China puts taikonauts on Mars, I’ll be impressed.
Layne, your a sour puss, wake up and smell the roses
And now Russians ferry American astronauts to the ISS. How the times have changed, eh.
Cool, I wish it had landed near the Apollo site.
I’d just as soon leave the Apollo sites alone for the time being… they should become world heritage sites and protected for future generations.
Congratulations China on this excellent achievement!
Thank you China (Beijing Aerospace Control Center) for your openness and sharing this fantastic voyage with the world! Congratulations! ????? (Zài zh?ngguó zhùhè) We hope your mission goes well and you continue to share the science and excitement we all expect and feel! WOW!
Thanks for sharing your success with us. I hope to be able to follow China’s successes in space exploration for years to come.
United States?
Hello? United States?!
Wake up!
Get back up there!
Will never happen, this country has been turned over to anti-science, blood sucking thieves* who think the national treasury is their personal checking account to be spent on wars of choice and oil production. If you want space exploration then discover a Spindletop under Olympus Mons.
*(that’s not a shot at the President, but US politicians in general)
I’d much rather spend the ever decreasing U. S. investment in space exploration on unmanned rover or probe programs to Titan, Europa and Enceladus. In the unlikely event NASA’s budget ever sees an increase again, then I’m in favor of returning to the Moon. With current investment levels, I fear that manned programs will be the province of China. What a shame.
Hopefully, China will become a valuable partner in the international space exploration program. It will take a world effort to create a permanent space station on the moon on which we can build a space port to visit the solar system.
Fantastic ,a Giant Leap For China, well done, 10 points out of 10, thank you China for these great pictures and continued success………..
Those giant leaps will be measured in metres, not that obsolete crap used by Americans. No wonder the US keeps sinking into the abyss.
“She says ‘it’s a beautiful moon’
I say ‘not if you’ve been there.’ ”
– The Killer Whales 1983
Good job China.
A giant leap for botkind. Now let’s get a telescope up there.
I believe the lander is equipped with one. One of tasks is to look at the earth’s atmosphere.
I am so glad to hear of China’s successful Moon landing. I hope that it is just the beginning of a long and successful space program.
The interesting thing is here too you see no blast crater.
The video states that the lander intentionally turned off it’s engine during the last part of the descent to keep dust from interfering with ops. Low Lunar gravity means less acceleration, which they took advantage of… very clever!
I awoke early this Sunday morning and first thing I did was to check if there were any new images from the Chang-e 3 lunar rover! Excited? Yessss….
Similar, in an off-world way, to the MER rover Spirit, Chang-e 3 appears to have landed next to an interesting crater – instead of IN one. Never-the-less… here’s hoping they decide to ‘poke around’ a bit in and around that crater? Some interesting ejecta?
The data from the ground penetrating radar should be quite interesting.
Today’s LPOD agrees! http://lpod.wikispaces.com/December+15%2C+2013
A new image just came up:
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/412246620055805952/photo/1
Cool! Looks like the rover made a 180 deg turn (see the tracks on the ground) and showed the side with the Chinese flag to the lander.
strange isn’t it that nasa just had to have LADEE up there before the Chinese got there…maybe just to keep an extra special eye on the Chinese and what their really up to !!! mmmmm just surmising..
anyhow well done china !!
Congratulations YUTU scientists and China on this excellent achievement,
and, sharing these mission data with the open world…!
Tell me they landed close enough to our old moon stuff so they can take pictures and stop all the ‘we never went to the moon’, idiots!
nice, good point!
The lunar landing deniers will never be convinced. They will just claim that is also a fake.
Good job. I’m rooting for to walk many kilometers. And whereas, therefore, is do the research, so noble that you want. It is showing that China also has its interest, which can, and, like the U.S., share your findings with humanity. Beautiful images and a show of engineering. I have no doubt that the exploration of humanity through space, the future holds for China and the Chinese, is so essential to success. Congratulations from Brazil!
50 years ago, it was the USA leading the way to the moon, and American moms everywhere would admonish their children to clean their plates by reminding them of the “starving kids in China.” I wonder if 21st century Chinese parents use the same strategy on their kids about “starving kids in America?”
Congratulations China!!!! Where do I click the LIKE button?
where is the light coming from?
the Sun
Thank you!
So where are the borders between USA territory, and Chinese territory?
the Pacific Ocean.
Nobody likes a smart arse Doug!
you asked a simple question, you got a simple answer.
not one single reference to Nazi nasa faux space missions lolol see what stacked preconditioned repetitive suggestive subliminal messages do to you LOLOL the good folks at nasa have you brilliant idiots hypnotized LOL