HONG KONG: Jade Rabbit or Yutu, China’s moon rover was launched and landed successfully only to stop after a year because it encountered technical difficulties. Experts started to believe that mission was a failure but a new data from the rover revealed that it indeed gathered important information about the moon before it shut down.
After the analysis of data that the rover gathered from its 114 meters walk, there are at least nine different rock layers beneath its wheels, which indicates that the moon has been extremely geologically active over the last 3.3 billion years.
In a statement, Long Xiao, a researcher at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan said, “Two things are most interesting. One is [that] more volcanic events have been defined in the late volcanism history of the moon. Another is the lunar mare [volcanic plain] area is not only composed of basaltic lavas, but also explosive eruption-formed pyroclastic rocks. The latter finding may shed light on … the volatile contents in the lunar mantle.”
Before launching Jade Rabbit, it was equipped with Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) capable of probing 1,300 feet beneath the lunar surface as well as the Active Particle-Induced X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Visible Near-Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS), three major scientific instruments.
The sent data were taken by the camera and the LPR and were gathered near the landing site. There is a crater near the landing site and that was where the data taken.
The Jade Rabbit did not travel that far but it was able to take measurements of the ground it rolled over and observe the nearby craters. The Chinese scientists said the site where the Yutu landed was different and difficult compared to the landing site of Apollo missions.
“We think this layer is probably pyroclastic rocks which formed during the course of volcanic eruptions. It reveals the diversity of volcanic activity, but what’s more important is that it shows there are plenty of volatile contents inside the moon,” Xaio said.
Yutu was the first lunar mission since 1976 when the Soviet’s landed Luna 24. Yutu is part of the Change’e 3 mission and landed in the Sea of Rains area.
The researchers now believe that it was a successful mission despite the short time it worked because of the data it gathered.
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