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China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover has died on the surface of
the moon, state media reported on Wednesday, posing a big setback for the country's ambitious
space programme.
The first moon rover sent out by China "could not be restored to full function", the state-owned China News Service said in a brief report. The landmark mission had run into mechanical problems last month.
The Jade Rabbit, or Yutu in Chinese, was deployed on the moon's surface on 15 December and was a huge source of pride in China, only the third country to complete a lunar rover mission after the US and former Soviet Union.
The landing was a key step forward in Beijing's ambitious military-run space programme, which includes plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually person sent to the moon.
The silver rover had a mechanical control abnormality late January due to "the complicated lunar surface environment", according to the official Xinhua news agency. It had been unable to function since then.
Condolences poured in on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, where internet users mourned the demise of the rover, China News Service said in its brief report entitled Loss of lunar rover.
The Jade Rabbit rover had sent back its first photographs from the moon, and officials lauded the first lunar soft landing in nearly 40 years as a step forward for "mankind as a whole".
The lunar mission, which came 10 years after China first sent an astronaut into space, was seen as a symbol of the country's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as a Communist party success in reversing the fortunes of the nation.
Beijing plans to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send a human to the moon.
The potential to extract lunar resources has been touted as a key reason behind Beijing's space programme. The moon is suspected to hold uranium, titanium, and other mineral resources, and could offer the possibility of solar power generation.
Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon | World news | theguardian.com