Chang'e 3 - China Rover Separates From Lander, Now On Moon's Surface

[Elvis Hendrix]

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/

Hey Z this is her blog. It's worth following for updates.
Elvis.

[RUSSO]

Well do tell, how is this making your day. It looks like Ted Turner colorized the Moon. The colors are just a palet made from gray samples. What am I missing? Is that your photo they used?

Seems to me that Ron is referring to the apparent large amount of titanium the hues of blue in the image, seem to indicate that the moon possesses.

Blue hues reveal titanium rich areas

Old news.. different color intensity tho 

A new map of the moon has uncovered a trove of areas rich in precious titanium ore, with some lunar rocks harboring 10 times as much of the stuff as rocks here on Earth do.

This lunar mosaic shows the boundary between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis. The relative blue color of the Tranquillitatis mare is due to higher abundances of the titanium-bearing mineral ilmenite.

http://www.space.com/13247-moon-map-lunar-titanium.html

[rdunk]

Pareidolia = I really like the sitting-up dog that is in the color pic of the Moon!! Anyone else see it? Instead of "the man in the "Moon, it is "the doggie in the Moon"!

[stealthyaroura]

http://www.space.com/13247-moon-map-lunar-titanium.html

BORG SHIPS IN HIVE FORMATION ON MOON!!

[RUSSO]

BORG SHIPS IN HIVE FORMATION ON MOON!!

Haha... 

Well... Maybe they are there to mine all that titanium before we do it.   

You never know how far the (jade) rabbit hole goes.   

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

LMAO

Post it on ATS & wait for Phage to arrive

[VillageIdiot]

LMAO

Post it on ATS & wait for Phage to arrive

I hate that guy. They worship him like he's a god or something.

[ArMaP]

I hate that guy. They worship him like he's a god or something.

Hate him for what he does, not for what other people do.

[Elvis Hendrix]

Chang'e 3 news, Xinhua reports that the rover roused today from its noontime "siesta," a few days earlier than originally planned. The rover hibernates over the high temperatures of lunar noon and cold temperatures of lunar night.




http://v.qq.com/cover/c/ctklokz7zk0a9y3.html?vid=f0013ghuxv8&start=31


BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's moon rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit), continued exploring after a "nap", according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence on Friday.

At about 8:00 p.m. Beijing Time, the six-wheeled rover started moving again after shutting down its subsystems on Dec. 16.

Yutu has had to deal with direct solar radiation raising the temperature to over 100 degrees centigrade on his sunny side, while his shaded side simultaneously fell below zero.

"The break had been planned to last until Dec. 23, but the scientists decided to restart Yutu now for more research time, based on the recent observations and telemetry parameters," said Pei Zhaoyu, spokesman for the lunar program."


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-12/20/c_125893854.htm

Over at unmannedspaceflight.com, Phil Stooke has done his best to pull image data out of these videos and tried to make a panorama, but despite his best efforts it's clearly nowhere near the quality of the data that underlies it.





Elvis.

[rdunk]

Hey Elvis, that is good info. I have been watching several sites, and this is the first new news  that I have seen in several days. I am a little surprised that they haven't been using this to keep pumping out the publicity, but they haven't. I do expect that we will see a lot of news on this, with pics, in the days ahead!

[Elvis Hendrix]

Hey Rdunk, I think your right mate. I just hope there are some better quality pics. Keep your eyes on the Chinese papers and the science forums for new news. I will post whatever I can find on this.

[rdunk]

This is a report of 12/22/2013 that is ssimilar to the last report above.

http://www.ecns.cn/2013/12-22/93680.shtml

China's moon rover works stably

2013-12-22 08:55XinhuaWeb Editor: Yao Lan

China's moon rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit), worked in stable condition following its restart after a "nap" on Friday night, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).

The six-wheeled rover started moving again after shutting down its subsystems on Dec. 16, and has traveled about 21 meters as of 8:05 p.m. Beijing Time on Saturday, according to the BACC.

Xinhua reporters observed at the center that the rover is moving slowly and tracks of the wheels can be seen clearly at around 5:00 p.m..

Real-time telemetry updates showed that all subsystems of the rover and lander are working stably, and the rover has sent more than 500 instructions to the lander within the 24 hours after the "nap".

Yutu separated from the lander on Dec. 15, several hours after Chang'e-3 soft-landed on Dec. 14. It moved to a spot about 9 meters to the north where Yutu and the lander took photos of each other.

Yutu will survey the moon's geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will conduct in-situ exploration at the landing site for one year.

[rdunk]

China's Chang'e-3 has a telescope! Here is a late news report dated 12/23/2103 that discusses it and other thoughts.

http://www.ecns.cn/2013/12-23/93765.shtml

Chang'e-3 success sparks star-gazing craze

2013-12-23 09:36China DailyWeb Editor: Wang Fan

The success of Chinese lunar probe Chang'e-3 has created a surge of public enthusiasm for astronomy.

On Dec 14, Chang'e-3 set down on the moon, making China the third country in the world to make a soft landing with a lunar probe.

The probe carried a telescope, which scientists say can offer a unique view of the cosmos.

"It is the dream of scientists to look into space from the moon, where observation is better because the moon has no pollution," said Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior adviser for China's lunar program, in an interview before the Dec 2 launch.

"This is the first moon-based astronomical telescope. I know many countries are planning similar projects, but we were the first" to do it, he said.

In the Shanxi provincial observatory, people formed long lines at night to look at the moon and search for the Chang'e-3 landing area.

"I saw where Chang'e-3 landed, but I could not see the probe and Yutu", the six-wheeled moon rover, said Jin Yuxuan, a 7-year-old astronomy buff in Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital.

Astronomer Yan Xiaodong told local media that it was impossible to see Chang'e-3 and Yutu with the 40-cm-diameter telescope at the observatory, given that the probe and rover are 380,000 km away. But people will have fun with the observations and gain scientific knowledge from them, Yan said.

Meanwhile, three young men in Hubei province used plastic tubes to make an 80-mm-diameter astronomical telescope, with which they can see the moon's craters.

All the materials in the telescope were bought from the market, such as plastic tubes from the building-materials market and a viewfinder taken from a toy gun.

"I had seen some pictures of the moon before, but I did not feel them to be magic until I saw those craters through my own telescope. This is amazing," Yu Shifan, one of the telescope's makers, told China News Service.

The three men are planning to produce a wide-angle telescope to observe further into the space.

Another amateur astronomer, 33-year-old Chen Tao from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, started building a private observatory at the Tibet autonomous region's Ngari prefecture in late November.

Based at an altitude of 5,100 meters, the telescope will have good observation weather 300 days a year. When construction is complete, Chen will be able to control devices at the observatory via computer from his home in Suzhou.

[A51Watcher]

[Elvis Hendrix]