China visits moon after the United States and the former Soviet Union
China's first lunar rover is expected to land on the moon on
Saturday, less than two weeks after it blasted off from Earth, according
to Chinese media reports.
The landing will make
China one of only three nations -- after the United States and the
former Soviet Union -- to "soft-land" on the moon's surface, and the
first to do so in more than three decades.
Chang'e-3, the unmanned
spacecraft carrying the rover, is due to touch down on a lava plain
named Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, shortly after 3 p.m. GMT (10
a.m. ET) on December 14, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
On landing, Chang'e-3
will release Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) -- a six-wheeled lunar
rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that
can dig up soil samples to a depth of 30 meters. The solar-powered rover
will patrol the moon's surface, studying the structure of the lunar
crust as well as soil and rocks, for at least three months.
The robot's name was decided by a public online poll and comes from a
Chinese myth about the pet white rabbit of a goddess, Chang'e, who is
said to live on the moon.
Weighing 140 kilograms,
the slow-moving rover carries an optical telescope for astronomical
observations and a powerful ultraviolet camera that will monitor how
solar activity affects the various layers -- troposphere, stratosphere
and ionosphere -- that make up the Earth's atmosphere, China's
information technology ministry said in a statement.
The Jade Rabbit is also
equipped with radioisotope heater units, allowing it to function during
the cold lunar nights when temperatures plunge as low as -180°C
(-292°F).
China has rapidly built
up its space program since it first sent an astronaut into space in
2003. In 2012, the country conducted 18 space launches, according to the
Pentagon.
The Chang'e-3 mission
constitutes the second phase of China's moon exploration program, which
includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth.
In 2010, China captured
images of the landing site for the 2013 probe, the Bay of Rainbows,
which is considered to be one of the most picturesque parts of the moon.
Within the next decade, China expects to open a permanent space station in the Earth's orbit.
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