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  China's Chang'e-3: Viewing, questions, comments (Page 2)

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Author Topic:   China's Chang'e-3: Viewing, questions, comments
Robert Pearlman
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posted 01-27-2014 12:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dom:
Some are speculating that the lid on the rover (does it have one like Lunokhod?) might not have closed properly.
The two solar panels fold in to form a lid over the stowed high-gain antenna and camera mast. It is not clear from Chinese media reports if the mast was able to be stowed or if one or both of the solar panels failed to fold down — or whether it was some other problem.

dom
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posted 01-27-2014 01:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dom   Click Here to Email dom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So we basically don't know what the problem is! Realistically, it's got to be something to do with the lid not closing and a long lunar 'winter night' looming

fredtrav
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posted 02-12-2014 01:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fredtrav   Click Here to Email fredtrav     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
According to BBC News, Jade Rabbit is declared dead.
China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover has been declared dead on the surface of the Moon, state media have reported.

The robot suffered a serious mechanical problem last month; officials have said it "could not be restored to full function".

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-12-2014 01:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Meanwhile, the state-run Xinhua is reporting:
The little rabbit is getting better and shows some signs of awakening. Let's wait.

dom
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posted 02-12-2014 01:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dom   Click Here to Email dom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Don't forget the rover might be dead but the lander is still functioning!

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-12-2014 02:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
UHF Satcom out of the UK has just reported receiving a "pretty good signal" from Yutu on the moon.
And, the signal we've all been waiting for, direct downlink from the Yutu rover!
The China Space Facebook page also confirms:
Official news: Yutu is still alive. Mission control is busy working on it. Please give them more time.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-12-2014 08:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The rumors of Yutu's death were indeed premature... from Xinhua:
China's moon rover Yutu has waken up from a troubled dormancy although experts are still trying to figure out the cause of its abnormality, a spokesman with the country's lunar probe program said on Thursday.

"Yutu has come back to life!" said Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesperson.

Pei said the moon rover, named after the pet of a lunar goddess in ancient Chinese mythology, has now been restored to its normal signal reception function. But experts are still working to verify the causes of its mechanical control abnormality.

Glint
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posted 02-14-2014 01:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glint   Click Here to Email Glint     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It might be alive, but what kind of life is it living? Has it moved at all or is it paralyzed?

Glint
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posted 07-24-2014 10:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glint   Click Here to Email Glint     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"The Chinese lunar rover likely became crippled after hitting a rock," wrote the South China Morning Post.

Jokes about Asian drivers aside, the latest scapegoating for the malfunctioning Yutu's failure to budge on the lunar surface is now said to be some kind of bump or rock that somehow got in the way and collided with Yutu as the latter was wheeling around with glee. Seems as though someone should have seen the stationary obstacle in the images and prevented Yutu from smashing into or become high-centered from rolling over it. After all, the image quality was quite good and very sharp.

Its handlers are also trying to shift blame away from themselves and to mysterious "foreign researchers" they relied on and who had underestimated the density of surface rocks. It's not the driver's fault.

At least they're looking at the "cup half full" side, while glossing over the mission failure:

"It was designed to roam the moon for three months to survey its geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources. But Yutu has managed to survive seven lunar nights so far."
How many months did it roam the moon, again?

I might point out, this CYA spectacle comes against the backdrop of the anniversary of the first manned lunar landing and safe return, 45 years earlier.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 07-24-2014 11:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Glint:
It's not the driver's fault.
I may be mistaken, but my impression from earlier news reports was that Yutu's movements were autonomous. It was not driven from Earth, but plotted its own path based on its onboard sensors.

In any case, I didn't read this update as scapegoating, but trying to understand what happened to the rover. It's unfortunate that Yutu lost its mobility, but that's not reason alone for derision.

quote:
Originally posted by Glint:
How many months did it roam the moon, again?
Yutu roved the moon from Dec. 14 through Dec. 25, then again from Jan. 11 through Jan. 25, when it encountered mechanical programs at the end of its second lunar day. Under its nominal design mission, it would have driven one more lunar day before ending its mission.

Glint
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posted 07-24-2014 11:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glint   Click Here to Email Glint     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
I may be mistaken, but my impression from earlier news reports was that Yutu's movements were autonomous.
If the controlling government was more open, perhaps we would have more knowledge of how this thing works. But given that its original mission was to cover a several square km area, it seems that would be difficult to do in a completely autonomous manner. The on-board stereo camera would be essential in either case.

The Mars rovers are largely autonomous due to the light travel time. But imagery (especially stereo) is used to plan the course in order to avoid hazards and target new sites.

Then there was the whole landing fiasco where it was targeted for one area but its landing was off by at least one Mare.

Another aspect to it is the question of whether or not the rock reason is more or less plausible than the lid not fitting right tighty in the nighty. Could we be seeing the blame being shifted from the hardware team (mechanical failure) to the operations team (ran into a rock)?

There are a lot of questions, but the press doesn't seem to be doing it's job -- pressing.

Headshot
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posted 09-04-2014 05:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Does anyone know what is the current status of this mission?

Is the lander functioning? Is it sending back any images or scientific data?

While I understand that the rover Yutu is crippled, is it sending back any useful data or images?

Robert Pearlman
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posted 09-06-2014 09:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
CCTV released this update today:

According to the video, though still static, the Yutu rover is continuing to send back images.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 01-01-2015 11:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
China’s Chang'e-3 lunar lander remains operational, in evidence by a newly distributed image taken by the spacecraft from the moon's surface, journalist Leonard David reports.
According to the informative Lunar Enterprise Daily, the Chinese lander made the first observation of a galaxy from its landing site: M101 Spiral.

The lander's Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) made the observation on December 2.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 12-23-2015 09:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
China's Chang'e 3 Yutu rover has found evidence of a new type of basaltic rock in one of the dark basins on the moon, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, focus on a geologically young region of the moon's surface – and shed fresh light on the evolution of our nearest neighbor.

"We recognize a new type of lunar basalt with a distinctive mineral assemblage compared with the samples from Apollo and Luna, and the lunar meteorites," the study authors wrote...

"Results indicate that this region's composition differs from other mare sample-return sites and is a new type of mare basalt not previously sampled, but consistent with remote sensing," the authors wrote.

And in the rock material examined in this spot – an area that's roughly 3 billion years old – the researchers discovered a surprising mix of chemical abundances, relatively rich in titanium dioxide and yet also in the mineral olivine (a magnesium iron silicate). In all likelihood, the basaltic rocks probably developed late in the history of the magma ocean that seeded them.

"The chemical and mineralogical information of the CE-3 landing site provides new ground truth for some of the youngest volcanism on the moon," the study authors wrote.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-03-2016 11:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Chang'e 3's lander data is now public, notes The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla.
The website is a little bit difficult to use, but last week I managed to download all of the data from two of the cameras -- a total of 35 Gigabytes of data! -- and I've spent the subsequent week figuring out what's there and how to handle it.

So, space fans, without further ado, here, for the first time in a format easily accessible to the public, are hundreds and hundreds of science-quality images from the Chang'e 3 lander and Yutu rover.

A few highlights, as selected by Emily:

fredtrav
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posted 08-04-2016 08:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for fredtrav   Click Here to Email fredtrav     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Did the rover ever start to move again after its immobility in 2014?

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-04-2016 09:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Unfortunately, no. Though its science instruments continued to function, it never recovered its ability to move after late January 2014.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-10-2016 08:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
gbtimes' Andrew Jones reports that Yutu may not be dead after all.
...it was not reported exactly when Yutu had 'died', what had happened and how it was ascertained during lunar nighttime - gbtimes called the SASTIND media centre. The answer was surprising:

"Yutu did not die but is in hibernation. It only stopped detecting work on July 28."

Elaborating, the source said that: "Being dead would mean losing contact with the ground and all its signals ceasing. Yutu still has signals."

"According to procedures, Yutu will wake up this month, but whether it can continue to work will be determined by the conditions then. Maybe it will give us a surprise."

It seems that Yutu is currently more retired than deceased, and could yet wake up, with its plutonium heaters apparently protecting its internal electronics during hibernation.


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