China has announced yesterday that they successfully landed their craft on the moons surface, and later deployed their Jade Rabbit rover, a great success for the nation as their look to further their efforts for space exploration. The mission was the first soft landing on the Moon in 37 years! And on Saturday afternoon the landing module underwent its powered decent and several hours later the robotic rover was deployed.
The Chang’e-3 mission launched on a Chinese Long March 3B rocket on December 1st from Xichang, and the module landed on one of the moons flat plains called the Bay of Rainbows, and Chinese state TV displayed pictures of the moon’s surface as the lander touched down.
The mission is now the third ever robotic rover to land on the lunar surface, and the Chinese mission will use it’s ability to climb slopes of up to 30 degrees, 200m per hour speed and ground-penetrating rader to gather measurements on the lunar soil and crust.
It’s a great achievement for China and it’s just another step in their plans for an advanced space program.
Thank you BBC for providing us with this information.
Images courtesy of BBC.
