back to article China celebrates third year of operations on the far side of the moon

China has celebrated the beginning of a third year of exploration on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 probe touched down in the Von Kármán crater on January 3rd, 2019, making it the first human-made vehicle to make a controlled landing on the face of the Moon we can’t see from our home. The probe launched the Yutu rover …

  1. Anonymous Custard Silver badge
    Pint

    The Little Rovers that Could...

    First Spirit and Opportunity (and indeed the not so little Curiosity) on Mars, and now Yutu on the Moon.

    Gotta love how well these rovers are doing and how long-lasting and successful they are. Several pints all round to worldwide exploration boffinry!

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Pint

    below -170°C for a fortnight at a time

    I wonder how they're managing that? Heating the electronics, I suspect: bandgap junctions get a bit squirely as the temperature gets below around -60C.

    Definitely a beer for the engineers! -->

    1. cray74

      Re: below -170°C for a fortnight at a time

      I wonder how they're managing that?

      Same way as the US's solar-powered rovers: ATOMIC ENERGY! Well, a few watts from decaying radioisotopes, plus lots of insulation.

      Yutu-2 also apparently learned from whatever "mechanical control" failure paralyzed Yutu on the nearside, and better addressed the extreme cold failures that damaged Yutu's solar panel closure motors. (The solar panels were supposed to close up at night and supply insulation to the body. More convenient than finding a tauntaun every night.)

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Just goes to show

    It doesn't matter where or who, space exploration is awesome !

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Just goes to show

      Including the secret Nazi moon base?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Queqiao

    Let me pull a pint for the Queqiao relay satellite. While rovers are sexy, infrastructure is the gift that keeps on giving.

    And I'm glad NASA managed to work around the silly US restrictions on cooperation with the Chinese.

  5. Peshman
    WTF?

    What a bunch of hypocrites!

    Cant and won't trust Huawei because you know...national security, data being sent directly to China etc.

    Please Sir, can we borrow your satellite for our future missions?

    Oh, no, no need to prove that your software is compromised and sending data to the PRC. We're happy to use it as is.

    Pfft!

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