While Curiosity explores Mars looking for traces of life, China brings on the moon the first in 40 years, passed since the Soviet Union ended the last exploration mission with a mobile vehicle, rover Lonokhod 2. Launched on December 1st 2013 with the Chang'e 3 rocket, lunar landing vehicle started insertion maneuvers on the orbit of the only natural satellite of Earth in December 6 and in December 14 successfully performed the landing operation on the dusty Moon surface.
On board was Yutu rover, a vehicle similar in size and appearance to Spirit and Opportunity, sent by the United States on the surface of the red planet in 2003. Like them, the Chinese rover has cameras and a movable arm equipped with a repertoire of sensors needed to analyze monthly geology.
For the first month Yutu bring a GPR device (ground-penetrating radar), able to explore the structure of the lunar rocks to a depth of 30 meters.
Unfortunately, outside of a few images obtained using next-generation cameras, capturing views that have not been seen since the time of the Apollo missions, it is unlikely to get more details about the scientific research undertaken by the Yutu rover, the Chinese government is reluctant to the disclosure of its exploration plans.
We find, however, that the rover's primary mission covers a period of 3 months, it will become a 10Km route covering an area of about 3Km square. But only half of the time will be effectively used, the rover powered by solar panels only works during the day, lasting 14 days.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/Lj8IH0
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