CCTV showed China’s President gleefully shaking hands and extending congratulations with many members of the mission team at BACC after seeing the high resolution photos of the Chang’e-3 rover emblazoned with China’s flag for himself.
It’s been nearly four decades since the prior lunar landing was accomplished by the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 sample return spacecraft back in 1976.
America’s last visit to the Moon’s surface occurred with the manned Apollo 17 landing mission – crewed by astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt , who coincidentally ascended from the lunar soil on Dec. 14, 1972 – exactly 41 years ago.
“The Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission [responsible for China’s space program] sends congratulations to all the staff that participated in the successful completion of the mission and China’s first soft landing on the moon,” said the Chinese vice premier Ma Kai during the CCTV broadcast.
“The rover and lander are working properly and reaching the goals set.”
“Chang’e-3 is China’s most complicated space mission,” said Kai. “This shows China is dedicated to the peaceful uses of space.”
“There are many more complicated and difficult tasks ahead.”
Indeed so far the Chang’e-3 mission has been primarily a highly successful demonstration of the extremely challenging engineering required to accomplish China’s first lunar landing.
Now the science phase can truly begin.
Over 4600 images have already been transmitted by Chang’e-3 since the December 14 touchdown.
After rolling all six wheels into the dirt, Yutu — which translates as "Jade Rabbit" — drove to a location about nine meters north of the lander, according to CCTV commentators.
The rover then turned around so that the red Chinese flag emblazoned on the front side would be facing the lander’s high resolution color cameras for the eagerly awaited portraits of one another.
Yutu is nearly the size of a golf cart. It measures about 5 feet by 3 feet (1.5 meters by 1 meter) on its sides and stands nearly 5 feet (1.5m) tall — nearly human height.
The 265-pound (120 kilograms) Yutu rover will now begin driving in a circle around the right side of the 2,645-pound (1,200kg) Chang’e-3 lander — for better illumination — at a distance ranging from 33 to 59 feet (10 to 18m).
The rover will snap further photos of the lander as it traverses about from five specific locations – showing the front, side, and back — over the course of the next 24 hours.
Thereafter Yutu will depart the landing site forever and begin its own lunar trek that’s expected to last at least three months.
So the rover and lander will soon be operating independently.
They are equipped with eight science instruments including multiple cameras, spectrometers, an optical telescope, ground penetrating radar, and other sensors to investigate the lunar surface and composition.
The radar instrument installed at the bottom of the rover can penetrate 328 feet (100m) deep below the surface to study the Moon’s structure and composition in unprecedented detail, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, senior advisor of China’s lunar probe project, in an interview on CCTV.
A UV camera will study Earth and its interaction with solar wind and a telescope will study celestial objects. This is done during the lunar day.
It will also investigate the Moon’s natural resources for use by potential future Chinese astronauts.
The two probes are now almost fully operational. Most of the science instruments are working including at least three cameras and the ground penetrating radar.
And although they have survived the harsh lunar environment thus far, they still face massive challenges. They must prove that they can survive the extremely cold lunar night and temperature fluctuations of more than 540° Fahrenheit (300° Celsius) — a great engineering challenge.
The rover will hibernate during the two-week-long lunar night.
A radioisotopic heater will provide heat to safeguard the rovers computer and electronics — including the alpha particle X-ray instrument on the rover’s robotic arm.
See more coverage from Ken Kremer at www.universetoday.com.