China’s Yutu Moon Rover Alive and Awake for 3rd Lunar Day of Exploration despite Malfunction

[cirr]

By Ken Kremer on February 13, 2014


This composite view shows China’s Yutu rover heading south and away forever from the Chang’e-3 landing site about a week after the Dec. 14, 2013 touchdown at Mare Imbrium. This cropped view was taken from the 360-degree panorama. See complete 360 degree landing site panorama herein. Chang’e-3 landers extreme ultraviolet (EUV) camera is at right, antenna at left. Credit: CNSA/Chinanews/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo – kenkremer.com. See our complete Yutu timelapse pano at NASA APOD Feb. 3, 2014: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140203.htm

Yutu Lives!

The little ‘rabbit’ beloved worldwide has now phoned home and actually survived the perils of the long lunar night and is alive and awake to start a 3rd day of scientific exploration despite suffering a serious malfunction as it entered the latest hibernation period two weeks ago.

“Yutu has come back to life!” said Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesperson for China’s lunar probe program, according to a breaking news report by the state owned Xinhua news agency.

“Experts are still working to verify the causes of its mechanical control abnormality.”

The Chang’e-3 mothership lander and piggybacked Yutu surface rover soft landed on the Moon on Dec. 14, 2013 at Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) – marking China’s first successful spacecraft landings on an extraterrestrial body in history.

Yutu’s new lease on life also comes after Monday’s (Feb. 11) incorrect report of the robots demise by the state owned China News Service, reported here.

However, “Yutu failed to power-up Monday [Feb 11] and data about its current condition and repair progress is still being collected and analyzed,” Xinhua reported.

This indicates that Yutu was indeed feared lost for some time by the team, until further efforts finally resulted in the detection of a signal from the spacecraft and a welcome reversal of yesterdays news.

The robot “has now been restored to its normal signal reception function,” says Pei.


Side by side screenshot photos of the Chang’e-3 moon lander (L) and the Yutu moon rover during the mutual-photograph process, at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, on Dec. 15, 2013. The moon rover and the moon lander took photos of each other marking the complete success of the Chang’e-3 lunar probe mission. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Earlier today (Feb. 12) amateur radio operators at UHF-satcom reported detection of a signal from Yutu.

But much technical work remains ahead for the engineering and science teams to ascertain why it malfunctioned and whether the six wheeled rover can be restored to partial or full functionality.

As night fell on Jan. 25, the rover entered its second two week long period of dormancy just as the rover “experienced a mechanical control abnormality,” according to a report by China’s official government newspaper, The People’s Daily.

“Yutu went into sleep under an abnormal status,” Pei said.

“Experts were initially concerned that it might not be able to survive the extremely low temperatures during the lunar night.”


360-degree time-lapse color panorama from China’s Chang’e-3 lander
This 360-degree time-lapse color panorama from China’s Chang’e-3 lander shows the Yutu rover at three different positions during its trek over the Moon’s surface at its landing site from Dec. 15-22, 2013 during the 1st Lunar Day. Credit: CNSA/Chinanews/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo – kenkremer.com. See our Yutu timelapse pano at NASA APOD Feb. 3, 2014: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140203.htm

Each lunar day and night lasts for alternating periods of 14 Earth days.

During each long night, the Moon’s temperatures plunge dramatically to below minus 180 Celsius, or minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit.

Both solar powered probes must enter hibernation mode during each lunar night to conserve energy and protect their science instruments and control mechanisms, computers and electronics.

“The rover stands a chance of being saved now that it is still alive,” Pei stated.

Yutu, which translates as ‘Jade Rabbit’ is named after the rabbit in Chinese mythology that lives on the Moon as a pet of the Moon goddess Chang’e.

‘Jade Rabbit’ had departed the landing site forever, and was journeying southwards as the anomoly occurred – about six weeks into its planned 3 month long moon roving expedition to investigate the moon’s surface composition and natural resources.

The 140 kg Yutu robot is located some 100 m south of the lander.


Traverse Path of Yutu rover from Dec. 14 landing to Dec. 21. Landscape textured with Chang’e 3 imagery from space and ground. Credit: CNSA/BACC

Definitive word about the Chang’e-3 lander has not yet been announced. But it is expected to survive since no malfunctions have been reported. It has a 1 year design lifetime.

Xinhua stated that Chinese space officials will comment on the landers status soon.

The 1200 kg stationary lander is expected to return science data about the Moon and conduct telescopic observations of the Earth and celestial objects for at least one year.

Chang’e-3 and Yutu landed on a thick deposit of volcanic material.

China is only the 3rd country in the world to successfully soft land a spacecraft on Earth’s nearest neighbor after the United States and the Soviet Union.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Chang’e-3, Orion, Orbital Sciences, SpaceX, commercial space, LADEE, Mars and more planetary and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

Read more: China’s Yutu Moon Rover Alive and Awake for 3rd Lunar Day of Exploration despite Malfunction

 

[terranMarine]

Made in China quality, proved to survive in harsh conditions

 

[rott]

Three words, "Made In China"

 

[BoQ77]

Vietnam also has potential to manufacture robots for specific purpose.
Chinese friends, next time, leave us a small room in your spaceship for our robot to be brother with Yutu ... OK?

 

[cirr]

探月工程发言人：玉兔号已全面苏醒|玉兔|苏醒_凤凰资讯

 

[BoQ77]

Is it just a dream ?
several days passed and we are no longer getting the update

 

[BoQ77]

No Call for Yutu by Morris Jones Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 21, 2014

Yutu rolling off the Chang'e 3 lander.
Well over a week since daylight returned to its landing site, China's Yutu Moon rover seems to be damaged beyond any practical use. That's the only reliable conclusion this analyst can reach after days of reading the available evidence, considering the options, and waiting for any sort of good news.

It is true that China reported that Yutu had made some sort of transmission a few days after sunrise. This shows that the rover was not completely dead at the time. However, this form of erratic transmissions, followed by silence, is typical of the way spacecraft die.

We have seen it so many times before. Ironically, the sunlight that was expected to heal the rover back to health may have damaged it even further as the lunar day advanced. Parts that could have been damaged by the cold lunar night could have been fractured or warped as they heated.

Is Yutu just severely damaged or is it totally dead? Right now, that's inconclusive. This writer suggested in an earlier article that it would take China some time to diagnose Yutu's faults and work out a strategy to use the rover.

This would take some time, and that would justify China's silence. Well, there has now been more than enough time to make a diagnosis and draw up some plans. China should say something new about Yutu. The world wants to know.

The overall forecast for Yutu grows bleaker with every day of inactivity and silence from Chinese officials. The world understands this, and has generally embraced Yutu and the Chang'e-3 mission that landed it with the support it deserves.

Millions of people around the world feel that they are stakeholders in this mission, just as China wanted. We need closure on the fate of our little robotic friend.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst who has written for spacedaily.com since 1999. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

 

[BoQ77]

Any different update ? Where's Chinese ?

 

[JSCh]

Yutu went into sleep/hibernation/dormancy for the third lunar night couple of days(22nd Feb) ago.

The Planetary Society: Blog - Emily Lakdawalla

Sunset on Chang'e 3's third lunar day: Yutu not dead yet, but not moving either
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2014/02/24 12:38 CST

Topics: pretty pictures, pics of spacecraft in space, mission status, the Moon, Chang'E program

There has been little news on the status of the Chang'e 3 mission over the course of its third lunar day. For the lander, we are in a no-news-is-good-news phase. According to a brief news story posted in Chinese last week, the lander's astronomical observations continue as normal.

For Yutu, the good news is that the rover survived the second lunar night with functioning scientific instruments. But the bad news is that the rover does not currently appear capable of roving, according to a Xinhua state news agency report in English: "China's lunar rover Yutu also entered the dormancy on Feb. 22, with the mechanical control issues that might cripple the vehicle still unresolved. According to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), Yutu only carried out fixed point observations during its third lunar day, equivalent to about two weeks on Earth. Yutu's radar, panorama camera and infrared imaging equipment are functioning normally, the control issues that have troubled the rover since January persist."

Along with that update, they released two photos of the lander. I have here the highest-quality versions of those photos that are available on the Web, sent to me by an anonymous source who does not wish to be identified but who assures me that the images have been approved for release. They show the lander as seen from the rover, taken during the third day of surface operations. Their perspective on the lander shows that during the second day, Yutu continued moving clockwise around the lander.

Here's the left-eye image:


Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yutu image of the Chang'e 3 lander from the mission's third solar day
The Yutu rover took this photo of the Chang'e 3 lander from a position southwest of the lander on the mission's third solar day, mid-February 2014. The photo is from the left eye of its stereo color camera.
And the right-eye image:


Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yutu image of Chang'e 3 lander, lunar day 3 (right eye)
And here's a version of the pair that I've processed into stereo. The composition is not great for stereo imaging (the camera was tilted and there's a lot of parallax in the spacecraft, which is cut off at the right edge, making it pretty much impossible to pick a comfortable spot to focus the image), but it's a stereo pair of images from a spacecraft that's not even supposed to still be functioning on the surface of another world, so I'm not complaining.




Chinese Academy of Sciences / Emily Lakdawalla

3D Yutu image of the Chang'e 3 lander from the mission's third solar day
The Yutu rover took a stereo pair of images of the Chang'e 3 lander from a position southwest of the lander on the mission's third solar day, mid-February 2014.
Crossed-eye stereo

Parallel-eye stereo

Flicker gif

Here is Phil Stooke's attempt at determining the rover's current position, based in part on that stereo pair of photos. Hopefully we'll see a publicly released Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo some time soon that will corroborate this position estimate. LROC had plans to snap photos on January 22, February 19, and March 19.


NASA / GSFC / ASU / Chinese Academy of Sciences / Phil Stooke