
Jade Rabbit moon rover may be beyond repair, state media hints - swatkat
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1414534/jade-rabbit-moon-rover-may-be-beyond-repair-state-media-hints
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chiph
Moon dust probably destroyed the bearings. That stuff is brutal on seals.

[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/11/the-m...](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/11/the-
mystery-of-moon-dust.html)

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teawithcarl
This link seems to work -
[http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1414534/jade-
rabbit-m...](http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1414534/jade-rabbit-moon-
rover-may-be-beyond-repair-state-media-hints)

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JoeAltmaier
Another bump in the road. I hope it doesn't dampen the scientists' interest in
further exploration. The next rover will undoubtedly work even better! That's
the goal after all - to continue to explore and get better at it.

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fit2rule
If this is the case, its a real travesty for human achievements in space. The
Chinese space program - while certainly not as accomplished as the Russian and
American programs - is _accomplishing_ achievements at a rapid rate.

But, on the other hand, maybe it is a good thing - given that China's interest
in the moon is industrial, and not necessarily scientific. Unless the plan is
to clean up China by moving its industry to space, I can't see it as a good
thing that the universes' resources could shortly be being plundered by the
worst polluter - and violator of human rights - on the planet.

~~~
itchitawa
Industrial interest in the moon is a good thing for the development of space
travel and discovering new things. Also, you might find America's human rights
abuses to be worse than China's when you count all the imprisoned American
people who shouldn't be there and the forced conscription around the time of
America's moon missions. America's pollution is certainly worse than China's
when summed over the last century.

Low-polluting, low abussing countries like Tuvalu are typically not well
equipped to go to the moon.

~~~
vacri
"forced conscription" is a tautology. And frankly, "around the time of
America's moon mission" was also "around the time of Mao's 'Great Leap
Forward'"... where tens of millions of people died due to pure political
incompetance. The death count was an order of magnitude worse than the
horrific farce that was the Vietnam War. Hell, even when it comes to just the
Vietnam war in its own context, US conscription was one of the smaller immoral
things about it.

But ultimately, counting past misdeeds doesn't help us plan for the future.
We're here now, and we're looking forward. If country X was the worst polluter
in 1950 and isn't now, what good comes of castigating X now? We wouldn't
castigate modern China because of Mao's Great Leap, why do the same to the US
from back then? There's plenty of modern concerns to deal with anyway.

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streetnigga
I saw the article for a brief moment, then it redirected to a blank page.
Don't really care anymore.

edit: Really, no comment on why a story about _friggin space_ would be dis-
interesting to a consumer due to NYTimes-like article handling that can fail
on edge cases?

Consider the Apollo missions if a CJ[0] portal failed in delivering promised
content, what the user clicks a link for. Maybe I care too bloody much about
every nation's space program than to give time to a probable advertising
redirect.

In the end the search engine content shell game really annoys users, don't
expect positive results from it.

[0] [http://www.cj.com/](http://www.cj.com/)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
>I saw the article for a brief moment, then it redirected to a blank page.
Don't really care anymore.

I had the same problem. I run Firefox/NoScript. Perhaps there's a redirect to
some ad site that's blocked?

I was able to read the story in Firefox by using

    
    
        Tools -> Web Developer -> Page Source
    

and then paging down thru the vast amount of HTML until I found the story.
Here's the beginning. I'm not posting the whole thing, wouldn't want to
disrespect the copyright of some Chinese website (the irony of respecting
Chinese copyright doesn't escape me):

    
    
        Scientists may not be able to repair China's lunar rover, Jade Rabbit, that has broken down on the surface of the moon, a report on state media suggested.
    
        The report from Xinhua, written as if it sent by the rover itself, said the problems could prove insoluble.
    
        "Masters are working round the clock. In spite of that, I know I might not be able to make it through this lunar night," the "report" from Jade Rabbit said.
    
        "If this journey is to be suspended ahead of schedule, I am not fearful. No matter whether I can be fixed or not, I believe I have left masters much valuable information and experience."
    
        The authorities reported on Saturday the rover had experienced a "mechanical control abnormality'' and scientists were trying to fix it.

~~~
vacri
Blank page for me in FF/noscript, but in vanilla chrome is just plain broken.
I get a background colour, an advert, and a couple of broken scrollbars.

