Yutu 2 moon rover sets off to explore far side

Posted on Sunday, 6 January, 2019 | Comment icon

Yutu 2 has officially begun to explore the lunar surface. Image Credit: CNSA

The roving exploratory vehicle landed on the Moon as part of China's Chang'e 4 mission earlier this month.

Situated within the 2,500km-wide South Pole-Aitken basin, the Chinese lander and rover are the first ever to touch down on the unexplored far side of the Moon which always points away from the Earth.

A newly released image (see above) shows Yutu 2 sitting on the lunar surface after having trundled down its exit ramp and a few meters across the soil, leaving two distinctive wheel tracks behind it.

The rover is designed to operate for at least three months. It is equipped with a panoramic camera, a ground penetrating radar system, a spectrometer and an energetic neutral atom analyzer.

Some new photographs taken by Queqiao (the relay satellite) can also be viewed below.

Finally, some images from Queqiao, the relay satellite for the Chang'e-4 far side mission, showing the Earth and Moon! Queqiao is in a halo orbit at a Lagrange point 65,000-80,000 beyond the Moon to relay comms between Earth & CE-4 on the far side (H/T @LaunchStuff). pic.twitter.com/EZFYl70YBg
ā€” Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) January 4, 2019

Source: Space.com | Comments (33)

Tags: China, Moon

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Recent comments on this story

#24 Posted by Robotic Jew on 3 January, 2019, 15:33

are you suggesting there is a large population of aliens living near where this mission landed?

#25 Posted by Myles on 3 January, 2019, 15:48

Good stuff. You understood what I was getting at with my "bang for the buck" comment.

#26 Posted by atom2084 on 5 January, 2019, 7:39

Whether it is extraterrestrials, or humans no probes from Earth have lasted in the attempts to investigate this side of the moon.

#27 Posted by RoofGardener on 5 January, 2019, 7:46

Umm... that seems a strange comment ? I don't believe any probes have been SENT to monitor the dark side of the moon with the intent to "last" ?

#28 Posted by An0n1m0us on 5 January, 2019, 7:52

Their intent is to explore. The rover will come upon some software or mechanical issues before long, or at least that's the way it will be stated in the media.

#29 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf on 5 January, 2019, 11:05

Correct. An)n1m)us is just spewing random, untrue, nonsense. I suggest the best course of action is to simply ignore his silliness.

#30 Posted by Peter B on 5 January, 2019, 11:23

Ah, the prediction which can't fail... Yes, the rover will fail at some point, and regardless of when it is you'll be able to congratulate yourself. And there really aren't any other ways for a mechanical device controlled by software to fail, are there?

#31 Posted by Nzo on 7 January, 2019, 14:58

I hope that that little rover has a weapon if it somehow runs into Christof. Hate that guy, I hope he gets his!

#32 Posted by gadfly21 on 8 January, 2019, 3:19

Was looking through a list of Moon craft sent there and several craft crashed there after orbiting but no planned landers. The craft China sent before in Change 3 landed up on the north area of Mare Imbrium, not the far side. North of Apollo 15? I thought the Jade Rabbit rover was a success? This one is like it, except on the south far side with a relay. This little rover is near the Lunar South Pole where several orbital craft of the last 10 years have observed water ice in crater areas. Probably a good place to explore? Nothing anomalous or unusual about that. What would be weird and ter... [More]

#33 Posted by TripGun on 9 January, 2019, 18:51

I hope they don't get the idea to have a moon rover drag a shovel around to create a giant communist star in sky.

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