Chang'e 3 & Yutu Seen by NASA's LRO

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Chang'e 3 Lander and Rover From Above

Chang'e 3 landed on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) just east of a 450 m diameter impact crater on 14 December 2013. Soon after landing, a small rover named Yutu (or Jade Rabbit in English) was deployed and took its first tentative drive onto the airless regolith. At the time of the landing LRO's orbit was far from the landing site so images of the landing were not possible. Ten days later on 24 December, LRO approached the landing site, and LROC was able to acquire a series of six LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) image pairs during the next 36 hours (19 orbits).

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The Image showing Chang'e 3 and Yutu can be seen HERE in U-M's image gallery. A "before and after" image can be found HERE.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf
typo.