
China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon - mileswu
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/china-s-jade-rabbit-lunar-rover-dies-on-moon-1.2533780
======
reuven
I found it quite appropriate that the referenced CBC article referred to it as
a moon "buggy."

More seriously, I'm excited to see more countries, and more people in general,
involved in space exploration.

I also think that instead of pointing to the rover's failure, we shout point
to its success: Launching a rover to the moon and getting it to work in any
way, shape, or form, is a pretty amazing triumph. Sure, the US did it several
decades ago, but not all NASA missions were successful, and it's to be
expected that you need a few iterations to get the bugs out.

~~~
devindotcom
Let's not bury Yutu alive in our haste to eulogize it. The rover is awake and
transmitting. Lot of news sites have been reporting on news from many many
hours ago. My guess is the mechanical error interfered with the solar intake
and delayed the power-on process.

[http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283...](http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283.htm)

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lutusp
This is a shame, but most people -- even in space programs -- don't appreciate
how cold the Moon's shaded areas become. It's now estimated that these areas
get to 26 Kelvins -- that's 26 degrees above absolute zero. To get a sense of
how cold this is, Pluto's average surface temperature is seven degrees
_warmer_.

Also consider that, because of the specifics of the Moon's orbit, a given area
stays shaded for just over 14 days each month. That's a long time at a very
low temperature. Unless a spacecraft has a way to heat itself during the long
lunar night, its electronics will self-destruct.

~~~
oftenwrong
>To get a sense of how cold this is, Pluto's average surface temperature is
seven degrees warmer.

That doesn't give me a good sense because I have no idea how Pluto's average
surface temperature compares to typical on-Earth temperatures that I have
experienced. This gives me a better sense:

26 K = -247.2 C

~~~
shitgoose
Is that with the windchill?

~~~
officemonkey
No atmosphere, therefore no wind, thus no windchill.

~~~
akfanta
You must be fun at parties.

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pgrote
You try, you fail, you learn. It's fantastic more countries are venturing into
space exploration. Their next effort will build upon what they've learned.

Do countries typically share what they learn about these failures?

~~~
tomswartz07
I know NASA has been publishing reports on all of their missions for a number
of years. Here's a small collection: [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-
mrs.html](http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-mrs.html)

I believe that after Challenger, NASA has even published technical reports
regarding all aspects of the cause of failure and the steps to prevent it.

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njharman
My biggest shock was "Why haven't I heard about this lunar rover before!?"

I'm not news hound, but I do spend too much time on tech sites (HN/Reddit)
that would report this. I remember years ago mention of China (and India) moon
missions. But, really first man mad object to land in 37 years should have
been blasted over most news sources.

After shock... "Kick ass, we're (finally) getting back on the moon!"

~~~
AceJohnny2
It was definitely on the front page of all techie sites, including HN and
Reddit.

Many comments thereof lamented the lack of coverage by the mainstream media.

~~~
bane
It even made the Daily Show with Patrick Stewart hilariously dressed up as the
rover, slowly dying.

[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-4-2014/who-
fr...](http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-4-2014/who-froze-jade-
rabbit-)

~~~
cygwin98
Not surprised. He has been bashing China for a while, which is the trending
topic in the mainstream media anyway. Though I do wish some of the media
agencies strike out of the group-thinking, and examine what NASA has been up
to for the past decade, and what needs to be improved in terms of space
exploration.

~~~
trekky1700
I haven't seen any trend of bashing China, unless of course reporting honestly
is bashing.

NASA, despite its huge budget cuts, in the last decade has operated three
rovers on Mars, landed one new one (via spectacular jet crane awesomeness).
They've built new types of rockets, taken pictures of the universe, continued
to do valuable research in science and space. Continued to be a major
contributor to the ISS. And much much more.

I think the real question here is, where have you been for the last decade?

~~~
cygwin98
_I haven 't seen any trend of bashing China, unless of course reporting
honestly is bashing._

Well, this is a bit subjective, in my book selective reporting that focuses on
negativity is bashing.

I am all for more budgets for NASA. Quite frankly, I don't follow NASA's
missions very often. For the past decade I did hear from time to time that
NASA sent rovers to some planets. Meanwhile, I kept hearing the flip-flop
stories about the water on Mars. It gave me impression that NASA either went
hugely under-budget on their Mars' missions or they spread themselves too
thin. That was my point (admittedly I may need to soften my tone in my
comment). Not sure if NASA had a vision problem, in my opinion, it may have
made more impact and (hopefully) got more funding if they narrowed down their
scope of missions and obtained more decisive results.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
The flip-flop comes from mainstream media interpretation of the science,
usually not from the people that are part of the missions. Even the "science
journalists" that are attached to bigger missions frequently dramatize
findings in order to "make it a compelling story" (source: one of my exes was
such a journalist.)

> either went hugely under-budget on their Mars' missions or they spread
> themselves too thin

I think that is a misread of the situation; the lack of a consistent narrative
and publicity across NASA and its missions has more to do with the
organizational structure of the PR and public education/outreach within NASA
than the science or the mission management itself.

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demallien
Well that sucks.

Is anyone here a big follower of the Chinese space programme? I follow
"western" space efforts pretty closely, but with heavy military involvement, a
preoccupation with face-saving, and the language barrier, I find the Chinese
programme nigh on impossible to track. Do they have the same sort of spending
split that NASA has with respect to the manned v. unmanned programmes? Or does
their unmanned programme get substantially more than a pittance? As things
stand, I'm not even able to tell if they are actually serious about space
outside of military use, or if it's all just a prestige play. Anyone care to
fill in some detail?

~~~
dengnan
We, Chinese, do not know too much details either. It is hard for us to know
details about the spending.

I tried to google it with key words like "Chang'e budget", but found nothing
useful. However, I did found an article about the history[0]. Here is some
fact: Back to 90s, there were Chinese scientists suggesting for lunar
exploration. But the projects requires a budget around 1.5B, which was
declined by the prime minister LI Peng (Family name first.)

0\.
[http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%8E%A2%E6%9C%...](http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%8E%A2%E6%9C%88%E8%AE%A1%E5%88%92)

~~~
SEJeff
I wish the Chinese space program the best. Every success pushes mankind (all
nationalities) forward in our understanding of the universe.

~~~
TrainedMonkey
That. Hopefully we can get another space race this time against China. Sending
people to Mars or establishing moon colony for example.

~~~
SEJeff
I suspect Elon Musk will win that one and as a result America :)

SpaceX is doing quite well thusfar.

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jccooper
Hard to say what happened from the sketchy reports, but there's been some
mention of "mechanical problems" due to lunar dust, and hibernation problems.
I guess they have some mechanical movement involved in hibernation mode. Pre-
positioning solar arrays, maybe? Storing instruments?

Lunar dust is notoriously abrasive, having formed in a non-erosive setting.
It's a well known problem for lunar exploration, and NASA's done a lot of work
on it. Not a lot of recent practical experience, of course.

The Chang'e designers must have known about the problem. Apparently they
underestimated it, or just missed. Hopefully there's some good lessons learned
for future missions. Getting there and working for a lunar day is a pretty
good job in itself.

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cygwin98
The team is still working on it. There is hope still.

[http://gbtimes.com/opinion/jade-rabbit-still-fighting-
despit...](http://gbtimes.com/opinion/jade-rabbit-still-fighting-despite-
death-reports)

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TrainedMonkey
Chinese space program had come a long way. Interesting test would be how they
handle this failure. Will they go assigning blame and scapegoats. Or will they
learn from this mistake and improve quality control/redundancy for future
missions.

~~~
1morewebdev
I expect the latter, they aren't known to give up big dreams so easily.
Consider for instance that India and Russia have had numerous failed launches
for various rockets and / or space probes and both countries continue to try
again and eventually succeed. Why would China not try again? I pray they do.
Chinese or American or Russian or Indian, I want to see a minimal human
habitat on the moon in my lifetime. Our species deserves that much, for all
the work done so far.

~~~
grogenaut
There is no such thing as deserve, especially in cases like this. There is no
ice cream for failure.

Well I mean you can go out and buy ice cream if you're at mission control and
not dead. And I guess you can eat some astronaut ice cream as your air runs
out or you freeze to death if you are in space.

But this isn't some deserve type thing.

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3327
Shame as well space exploration is still so primitive and infant that I root
for any nation venturing out there. Too bad its clouted by military
achievements.

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kryptiskt
Seems like there is hope: [http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-
lakdawalla/2014/possibl...](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-
lakdawalla/2014/possible-hope-for-yutu.html)

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devindotcom
Actually, it's working - not perfectly, but it's 'awake,' sending and
receiving signals:

[http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283...](http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283.htm)

Xinhua is adding new info on Twitter:

[https://twitter.com/XHNews](https://twitter.com/XHNews)

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smtf
Does anyone know if there are images from this rover available on-line ? I'd
love to see some hi rez shots of the Earth with the Moon's horizon in the
shot.

~~~
frank_harmonic
Here are some images of a mock-up of the rover, being shown off at a science
conference in Beijing. It's an impressive technical achievement.

[http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/9448077/China-sending-jade-
ra...](http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/9448077/China-sending-jade-rabbit-rover-
to-moon)

[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-26/chinas-
jade-...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-26/chinas-jade-rabbit-
moonshot)

[http://imarstore.blogspot.com/2013/11/technology-china-
going...](http://imarstore.blogspot.com/2013/11/technology-china-going-to-
land-lunar.html)

The question is, why is Europe being nuked in the background? Note how the
images are from at least 3 different angles, so it's not like some reporter
got a Photoshopped picture ...

[http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1t37gn/wtf_is_a_mushroo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1t37gn/wtf_is_a_mushroom_cloud_doing_over_europe_in_the/)

[http://rt.com/news/europe-nuclear-explosion-
china-440/](http://rt.com/news/europe-nuclear-explosion-china-440/)

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dengnan
FYI, according to recent news[0], The lunar rover is recovered now. Sorry that
I did not find a source in English.

0\.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2014/02/140213_yutu...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2014/02/140213_yutu_awake.shtml)

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10098
I like the name "Jade Rabbit" :)

~~~
officemonkey
It sounds like a dildo name to me.

~~~
chj
Culture difference.

Jade Rabbit is a figure in Chinese legend, companion of a fairy named Chang'e.

~~~
officemonkey
>companion of a fairy named Chang

Now it even sounds more like a dildo name.

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tarzan3419
News: it wakes up now.

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duncan_bayne
Good luck getting the warranty honoured ;)

