China's Yutu 2 rover still going strong after 4 years on the moon's far side (2024)

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China's Yutu 2 rover still going strong after 4 years on the moon's far side? ›

China's Yutu 2 rover still going strong after 4 years on the moon's far side. Yutu 2, whose name means "Jade Rabbit 2," is a star once more as China celebrates the start of the Year of the Rabbit. China's Yutu 2 rover is still operating after four years on the moon and has returned new images from the lunar far side.

Yutu-2 is currently operational as the longest-lived lunar rover and the first lunar rover traversing the far side of the Moon.

China's lunar program rarely provides updates on the Chang'e 4 mission these days, but the rover and lander were going strong in January when the pair marked the fourth anniversary of their landing. The duo are also apparently still active to this day.

The new map shows that the top 40 metres of the Moon's crust is made up of layers of dust, soil and rocks. Within this upper layer, the scientists found a hidden impact crater – since covered, the researchers hypothesise, by debris from the collision.

One of the mission's objectives is to study any exposed material from the mantle present at the landing site. This would provide insights into the internal structure and history of the Moon. Indeed, data from orbiting spacecraft show that the composition of the basin is different from the surrounding lunar highlands.

The expected operating time of the rover is one lunar day or around 14 Earth days, as its electronics are not designed to endure the frigid lunar night. Its power system has a solar-powered sleep and wake-up cycle, which could result in a longer operation time than planned.

The first rover to visit the far side of the moon, China's Yutu-2, has found stark differences between there and the near side. These include stickier, more supportive soil on the far side and a greater abundance of small rocks and impact craters.

Yutu 2 has six wheels and a max speed of 0.1mph; it packs enough punch to climb a 20-degree slope and move over obstructions up to 8 inches tall. The moon's surface is covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters, and lava flows but is still quite soft.

The Pragyan rover is near the moon's south pole, while the Yutu 2 rover is on the far side of the moon. The distance between the two rovers is approximately 1,891 km. There is no chance of the two rovers meeting, as the Pragyan rover is only capable of traveling up to 500 meters from its landing site.

Chang'e 3, which includes a lander and rover, was launched on 1 December 2013 and successfully soft-landed on the Moon on 14 December 2013. Chang'e 4, which includes a lander and rover, was launched on 7 December 2018 and landed on 3 January 2019 in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, on the far side of the Moon.

What have the Chinese found on the moon? ›

China discovers strange glass beads on moon that may contain billions of tons of water. Scientists detected water trapped inside glass spherules on the moon after analyzing soil samples brought back by China's Chang'e-5 mission.

China Plans Three Moon-Mining Missions After Finding a Potential New Source of Energy. The Chinese discovery of a phosphate mineral in columnar crystal has the nation clamoring for more of the Moon. A 2020 mission brought back minerals to China, leading to the discovery of a phosphate mineral now named Changesite-(Y).

China has discovered the explanation for the mysterious "hut" its Yutu 2 rover spotted on the moon late last year. As the lunar rover made a closer approach, a log of its activities revealed the object was actually just a rock on a crater rim.

The United States, the then-Soviet Union and more recently China have all sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, which faces Earth, but this is the first-ever landing on the other side.

Just before 10:30 am Beijing local time on January 3, the robotic spacecraft Chang'e 4 made a soft landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin area of the moon, otherwise known as the “far side” or “dark side” of Earth's only natural satellite.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong gained renown in 1969 for becoming the first person to walk on the moon, but the Soviet Union's Luna-2 mission was the first spacecraft to reach the moon's surface in 1959, and the Luna-9 mission in 1966 was the first to make a soft landing there.

Active. Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission by NASA, was launched November 26, 2011 and landed at the Aeolis Palus plain near Aeolis Mons (informally "Mount Sharp") in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The Curiosity rover is still operational as of March 2024.

The rover was launched as part of Chandrayaan-2 on 22 July 2019 and was destroyed with its lander, Vikram, when it crashed on the Moon on 6 September 2019. In July 2023, Chandrayaan-3 launched, carrying new versions of Vikram and Pragyan, which successfully landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023.

India's Pragyan rover is near the moon's south pole, while China's Yutu 2 rover is on the far side of the moon. They are about 1,891 km apart and have been operating for one lunar day and over 4 years, respectively.

The rover has traveled a total of 4,774 feet (1,455 meters) across Von Kármán crater in its four years of exploration and is now 865 feet (2,837 m) northwest of the Chang'e 4 lander from which it rolled down onto the moon.