Posted on 01/27/2014 3:11:24 PM PST by 1rudeboy
A month into its planned three-month mission on the moon, China's "Jade Rabbit" lunar rover has run into a potentially serious problem.
Over the weekend, China's state-run Xinhua news service said the rover, known as "Yutu" in Chinese, had experienced a "mechanical control abnormality."
Officials did not say how serious the problem was but by Monday afternoon China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo social media network was flooded with condolences, reports Phys.Org.
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China's Chang'e 3 robotic probe touched on Mare Imbrium -- the Sea of Rains -- on Dec. 14, becoming only the third nation in history to pull off a soft lunar landing.
Hours later, Chang'e 3 deployed Jade Rabbit for an independent science mission.
The unspecified mechanical issue, which Xinhua reported was related to "the complicated lunar surface environment," appeared as ground control teams were preparing to put the rover into hibernation to wait out its second lunar night.
A single day on the moon lasts about 28 Earth days, about half the time in sunlight and half in darkness. Daytime temperatures can soar to more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Night-time temperatures can plummet to minus-280 degrees Fahrenheit.
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"The bad news is, I was supposed to go to sleep this morning, but before I went to sleep, my masters found some mechanical control abnormalities," said an anthropomorphic Jade Rabbit posting on Sina Weibo, reports Phys.Org.
"Some parts of my body won't listen to their commands. Now my masters are hard at work thinking of ways to fix me… Even so, I know that it's possible I won’t be able to endure this night," the post said.
"I originally thought I could hop around up here for three months ... but if this trip is to end prematurely, I'm not afraid. Whether or not they can fix me, I know that my breakdown can provide my masters with a lot of valuable information and experience," the post said.
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"I'll tell everyone a little secret," it added. "I'm actually not that sad. I'm just in my own adventure story, and like any protagonist, I encountered a bit of a problem. Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humans."
It must be terrible. You can't even buy this rover in Home Depot, OR, Mao forbid, Harbor Freight!
Will I dream? ~ HAL 9000
They claimed that by smoking in their sputnik, that they were there FIRST!
I do remember the damnedest sheeit.
HAL: My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.
Dave Bowman: Yes, I’d like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.
HAL: Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do,
I’m half crazy...
HAL: Yes Dave.
Dave Bowman: Open the door HAL...
5.56mm
People can laugh. The United States could have owned the Moon and the entire solar system, but we pulled back from that because we did not want to embarrass the Soviets too much.
I do not think the Chinese will make the same mistake. If we rid ourselves of the current regime, we can be powerful rivals. I think we lost the opportunity to be overwhelmingly dominant.
It was simply because of the leftist traitors within our midst.
You only own it, if you can get to it.
If you can’t get there, no piece of paper on earth
is going to give you any rights to it.
As I said, we could have owned it.
Confucius say man who puts rabbit on Moon must use rabbit ears.
NO REFUNDS!
Moon curse?
Oh, wait: Made in China.
Or: What’s Chinese for Capricorn One?
I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.
It had to be an electrical switch problem. Every crappy Chinese LED flashlight I ever bought developed problems with the switch. The Chinese aspire to great things, but they can’t master the little details like a crummy switch.
Any programmer can tell you what went wrong.
Politics got into the design. They insisted that some well-connected moron be on the team. They used engineers who got into American universities by cheating on tests. They did little testing because it would imply the design was flawed if it failed.
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