Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China’s First Rover ‘Yutu’ to the Moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – China successfully launched its first ever lunar rover bound for the Moon’s surface aboard a Long March rocket today at 1:30 a.m. Beijing local time, Dec. 2, 2013 (12:30 p.m. EST, Dec. 1) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.
CrazyNeutrino said:
Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China’s First Rover ‘Yutu’ to the Moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – China successfully launched its first ever lunar rover bound for the Moon’s surface aboard a Long March rocket today at 1:30 a.m. Beijing local time, Dec. 2, 2013 (12:30 p.m. EST, Dec. 1) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.
hit or miss?
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Well they have already done the animation of the hit.
So, as before, I’ll go with a Moon landing…
The artist drawing the impression of Yutu on the Moon’s surface either got the wrong moon or thinks Yutu is very very large.
The footage is helped by a nice orchestral version of ‘love lifts us up where we can bomb’
Stealth said:
The artist drawing the impression of Yutu on the Moon’s surface either got the wrong moon or thinks Yutu is very very large.
Perhaps it rests atop a small hillock
dv said:
Stealth said:
The artist drawing the impression of Yutu on the Moon’s surface either got the wrong moon or thinks Yutu is very very large.
Perhaps it rests atop a small hillock
He also has multiple light sources casting shadows. If the NASA bods made this many mistakes in their moon shots we would never beleive that actually went there…
This will be the first time a craft has been landed (rather than crashed) on the moon since 1976.
dv said:
This will be the first time a craft has been landed (rather than crashed) on the moon since 1976.
The atmosphere of the moon has a mass of about 25 tonnes.
dv said:
The atmosphere of the moon has a mass of about 25 tonnes.
No wonder we can’t see it.
It has achieved a stable orbit, and the lander should put down next weekend.
I must say … they’ve picked a nice safe, ie dull, landing place. It’s a basalt plain.
The Seething Sea Ceaseth and Thus the Seething Sea Sufficeth Us,”
Skeptic Pete said:
The Seething Sea Ceaseth and Thus the Seething Sea Sufficeth Us,”
Thanks
Gotta be said: the CNSA website is awful.
given the quality of most chinese merchandise I’m surprised its made it that far
the other problem with buying all this chinese crap is that they’ve started to build lots of war machines and have started throwing their weight around in the east china sea.
whilst we are winding down our ability to make stuff in any capacity , they have ramped up their capacity. its not going to end well considering that we have the minerals they want. the Japanese weren’t just on some idle tour down south to Darwin in ww2.
the only silver lining is that the yanks will declare all debts owed to chinese banks and fellow travellers as invalid and not needing to be paid – at least they would be out of financial disaster then and could go to year zero.
Yes, it will be interesting to see exactly where they land: presumably at one of the more recent impact craters. They play their cards close to the chest, unlike NASA.
dv said:
Yes, it will be interesting to see exactly where they land: presumably at one of the more recent impact craters. They play their cards close to the chest, unlike NASA.
Stealth said:
dv said:
Yes, it will be interesting to see exactly where they land: presumably at one of the more recent impact craters. They play their cards close to the chest, unlike NASA.
They will be happy if they manage to hit it at all. And then where ever they hit will be “The exact placed they planned to land”
Something like that, yes.
But let’s put it this way. The rover has a design range of 10 km. If they don’t land within 10 km of a decent recent impact crater, so that all they get to look at is basalt and more basalt … I think we can assume it didn’t go to plan.
dv said:
But let’s put it this way. The rover has a design range of 10 km. If they don’t land within 10 km of a decent recent impact crater, so that all they get to look at is basalt and more basalt … I think we can assume it didn’t go to plan.
so what is your experience with chinese planning dv?
Riff-in-Thyme said:
dv said:But let’s put it this way. The rover has a design range of 10 km. If they don’t land within 10 km of a decent recent impact crater, so that all they get to look at is basalt and more basalt … I think we can assume it didn’t go to plan.
so what is your experience with chinese planning dv?
They run a friggen mean yum cha
I think we can chalk this up as a “partial success”.
The lander and rover softlanded safely. The rover dispatched, took photos of the surrounds, performed some soil analysis.
However, the rover was expected to operate for three months. Due to some kind of malfunction it is not going to be able to put into the appropriate state to survive the long lunar night.
The lander is still expected to operate nominally for another ten months but I don’t think much useful data will come of that.
It is a little sad to see the China continue to go into face-saving mode: “The abnormality occurred due to “the complicated lunar surface environment,” the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, citing the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).”
Some more concrete information can be viewed here
Can’t wait until the Moon-people who ordered a rover from China put their review up on Amazon!
dv said:
It is a little sad to see the China continue to go into face-saving mode: “The abnormality occurred due to “the complicated lunar surface environment,” the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, citing the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).”
Due to “being on the moon” basically.
don’t mess with my yutu
wookiemeister said:
don’t mess with my yutu
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
don’t mess with my yutu
To paraphrase Hamlet. Alas poor Yutu, they knew him well.
yutu brutus?
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
don’t mess with my yutu
To paraphrase Hamlet. Alas poor Yutu, they knew him well.
To paraphrase Julius Caeser. Yu tu, Cactus.
wookiemeister said:
Tamb said:
wookiemeister said:
don’t mess with my yutu
To paraphrase Hamlet. Alas poor Yutu, they knew him well.
yutu brute?
Okay starting to think along the same lines as wookiemaster. Time to sign off.
Soso said:
Okay starting to think along the same lines as wookiemaster. Time to sign off.
Where the streets have no name