Sci Tech
China’s ‘Jade Rabbit’ takes a licking and keeps on ticking
China’s ‘Jade Rabbit’ takes a licking and keeps on ticking
The Jade Rabbit is back. China cheered the lunar roving craft as it performed a soft landing on the moon on Dec. 14. This marked the first lunar landing since 1976. Called Yutu in Chinese, the rover explored the moon until Jan. 25 when it ran into mechanical difficulties. The rover even gave a farewell speech as scientists on earth were deciding whether to put it down for good.
The Chinese have anthropomorphized the Jade Runner in a big way as it goes about a planned three month exploration mission. It’s been massively publicized on social media and the Internet in China with nearly 600 million online users following the story.
China is planning to land astronauts on the moon in 2024, but they;re not the only emerging superpower aiming to achieve such a feat. India hopes to land an astronaut on the moon in 2020. Google also entered the space race offering a $30 million prize for the first
private lunar landing.