Chinese Luna Rover

Chang'e 3 lander landed on the northern edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains)

the lavas are high in the metal titanium

Location of Mare Imbrium

Mare Imbrium is below the large crater "Plato" (101km)

The Rover has four cameras and ground-penetrating radar also a robotic arm equipped with an alpha particle x-ray spectrometer

Chinese Luna Rover - "Yutu (Jade Rabbit)"

Lander (viewed from the rover)

The landing was successfully and the rover moved across the moon a short distance, Unfortunately the Jade Rabbit Rover could not withstand the cold of the 2 week night cycle on the moon and failed to use its ground penetrating radar. The Lander itself had a Plutonium-238 radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) Nuclear power source to keep it at a working temperature.

Future

2017 Chang'e 5 luna sample return

2018 Chang'e 4

Chang'e 4 is designed to soft-land on the far side of the Moon and deliver a surface rover to measure surface chemical and mineral composition, the morphology of the surface, and other physical properties. The lander will deploy a demonstration experiment to observe the low frequency radio sky from the far side, a location permanently shielded from the radio noise generated by the Earth’s ionosphere. Such an experiment will have the goal of evaluating the facility of such observations for future larger installations on the far side of the Moon.

The far side of the Moon is important for the study of the Moon as a planet. From orbit, we have found that the enormous South Pole-Aitken basin (an impact crater over 2,500 km across) exposes the deepest parts of the lunar crust. This feature is the oldest crater on the Moon, having formed early in the history of the Solar System. Determining its age and compositional effects is a key question, not only for lunar science but also for the history and processes of planetary evolution in general. Although we need samples of this feature to definitively answer these questions, surface in situ measurement of properties at a known location can provide important “ground truth” for data obtained from orbit. Obtaining the first direct measurements of the surface of the far side, as well as getting our first look at the low-frequency radio sky—key to understanding the early history of the universe—is potentially breakthrough science.

Because it is not possible to communicate directly with spacecraft on the far side of the Moon from the Earth, control and operation of the Chang’E-4 lander and rover will use a relay satellite positioned in a “halo orbit” around the distant L-2 point over the far side. This mode of operations will extend Chinese experience in operations and control in deep space beyond LEO, allowing them to move and operate spacecraft at any point in cislunar space.