5 Years on the Moon: China’s ‘Yutu 2’ Rover Continues to Defy Time
China’s Lunar Exploration Achievements
Mainland China has announced several recent results of its lunar exploration, including the “Youtu-2” lunar rover, which has been operating for about five years and nine months.
The “Yutu 2” lunar rover has traveled 1,613 meters and completed its 71st day of operation, surpassing its design life of 3 months, making it the longest-running lunar rover. Since landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, the rover has sent back the latest lunar images.
Zuo Wei, deputy chief designer of the ground application system of the ”Chang’e-4″ mission, said: “This is the panoramic camera data returned on September 10, the 71st day of the lunar month. I think it may be somewhat similar, because it is the Mid-Autumn Festival then. I wanted to draw a mooncake with the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In addition to “Yutu 2”, the landers of “Chang’e 3″ and ”Chang’e 4” are still operational. Zhuo Wei said: “The payload of the Chang’e-3 lander’s moon-based telescope is actually still there, and it’s still turning on and off normally. It’s not just conducting scientific research. Of course, Chang’e-4 is also alive.”
As for the “Queqiao-2” relay satellite in lunar orbit, it is waiting for the launch of “Chang’e-7” around 2026 to explore the south pole of the moon. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration project, said: “Why go to Antarctica? Some colleagues in the world have launched detectors and believe that water molecules have been detected in the sky above Antarctica. If such an event occurs, it is possible that the water in Antarctica’s permanent shadow hole. There may be, but this water is in the form of water ice.”
The “Einstein Probe” space X-ray observatory also sent back X-ray images of the Moon from space on Tuesday after Chinese scientists used a self-developed space telescope to make a complete X-ray observation of the moon.
On the same day, the Chinese scientific research team also published the first paper on samples returned by Chang’e-6 in an international scientific journal, describing the physical mineralogy and geochemical properties of soil samples from the far side of the Moon.