In December 2013 China became the third nation in the world to land a lunar rover on the surface of the moon. It´s nearly a decade ago they first sent an astronaut into space and almost 40 years since the last soft-landing, done by the Soviet Union in 1976.
China has ambitious plans for space exploration and Chang’e-3 is part of the second phase of China’s lunar programme, including orbiting, landing and returning to the Earth. Chang’e-3 task is to survey the moon´s geological structure and surface in order to find natural resources to exploit in the future. The goal is to establish a permanent space station on the moon by 2020.
China plan to let the lander operate and send information to earth in one year, while the moon rover, called Yutu or Jade Rabbit, will operate for only three months.Between the 15-18th of December 2013, Yutu captured pictures of the moon surface and delivered a fantastic panorama view shown here:
Lunar panorama: Chang’e 3 lander in Out of this World
During the last month scientists have succeeded to identified 11 different types of chemicals with the help of the panoramic camera, infrared spectrograph and a X-ray device. Among these we find magnesium, aluminum, calcium and yttrium.
Image source: Daily Mail
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