Yutu wakes up after 3rd dormancy
Print Edition
CHINA’S moon rover Yutu woke up again at 6:42am yesterday, after its third dormancy, but even after a long rest, mechanical problems have not been resolved.
Yutu and the lander, which woke up earlier on Wednesday, have restarted their operations and are exploring as scheduled, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
The control issues that have troubled Yutu since January remain, but its panorama camera, radar and other equipment are functioning normally, the administration said.
The cause of the problems is still a mystery. The lander functioned normally during its first three lunar days, according to the administration. A lunar day is equivalent to about two weeks on Earth.
The lander’s optical telescope, extreme ultraviolet camera and lunar dust measurement device completed scheduled tasks and obtained a large amount of data.
Yutu, named after the pet rabbit of the lunar goddess Chang’e in Chinese mythology, touched down on the moon’s surface on December 15, hours after lunar probe Chang’e-3 landed.
It has now survived its design life of three months.
The rover was intended to roam the lunar surface, surveying the geological structure and substrate while looking for natural resources, but problems emerged before the second dormancy on January 25 as the lunar night fell. According to the administration, the problem was caused by the “complicated lunar surface.”
Chang’e-3 is part of the second phase of China’s lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth. It follows the success of the Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 missions in 2007 and 2010.
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