back to article Jade Rabbit nearly out of hop

The Jade Rabbit (Yutu in Chinese) moon probe is pretty much on its last legs, according to reports emerging from China. The spacecraft had surprised the country's space scientists in February by waking up in spite of an unspecified “mechanical control abnormality”. Its initial behaviour in December had been encouraging: it …

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  1. Big-nosed Pengie

    A damn good effort for a first go!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not a bad effort when you consider it is copied and stolen technology.

      They will do better when they can get access to the more upto date designs, and work out the quality control.

      The Russians had the same problem when they copied the Concord, though as we all know it was well known the Russians were after the design, they ended up stealing the 'doctored' wing designs.

      1. Uffish

        Yawn

        ... may I lazily reach out to insert the obligatory references to German V-1 rocket design teams, US involvement in industrial espionage, pots, kettles and the fact that anyone with enough money and a well functioning higher education system could do it. Kudos for having done it.

        Thanks - now, where's that coffee.

        1. Peter2 Silver badge

          Re: Yawn

          While I suspect i'm going to get downvoted to hell, the russians did not copy Concorde. It looks vaguely similar based on the fact that it's designed as a supersonic transport, which mandates swept back wings and a thin cross section. You literally can't expect it to look much different. Evidence for this is the design and construction of both aircraft being very different, and the TU144 being crap.

          Also, the times covered all of the requests to buy British technology for Concorde. If the Russians did get everything they'd ask for, then you might have a point. You don't.

          And yes, i'm British.

          Also, no evidence that China has stolen technology for this. There is literally no point copying the american designs anyway, given that the american design is 50 years old, uses old crappy materials instead of modern lightweights and contains a computer that is now slower than most wristwatches. Copying the design would be pointless and stupid, and the Chinese are far from being stupid.

          Why not just say "well done, but 50 years late..." if you want to bash the Chinese?

          1. Mage Silver badge

            re: Stolen, Sputnik

            By time of Sputnik the Russians had "sent home" their German Rocket Scientists and USA was doing Navy rockets that didn't work. So the USA let the Army and their German Rocket Scientists have a go. The 1st USA orbital satellite was a fraction of weight of Sputnik, not because Sputnik used valves (it did, but about 1/3 size of a pencil) and USA used transistors, but because the USA with Werner Von Braun was still figuring out Rockets.

            So the USA (particularly) and USSR initially "imbibed" German Rocket Technology but by 1958 heading off in different directions. The Russian, Chinese and USA designs are quite different. No one at all wants to use the fuel the Russians used successfully for many years.

            India, Israel, Japan, China, Russia, USA and European Space Agency (which isn't exactly EU, and curiously has their Spaceport in South America and provides Launch Pad for Russians, who now find their Spaceport is in a "foreign country", Kazakhstan) are all in the Club. Why did UK give up just as they about had it figured out?

            I think it's a long time since the Chinese or Russians slavishly copied anything. The USA spy agencies DO help their large Industrial companies. Presumably everyone does this.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC Stolen technology

        Well the USA stole their rocket technology (and scientists) from the Germans... Russia the same...

        The USA stole their supersonic tail design from the British, without that they would never have broken the sound barrier when they did (ok we gave it freely, but they were supposed to share their technology which they did not!)

        The USA is no stranger to stealing technology....

      3. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: "copied and stolen technology"

        Considering the Americans are still trying to figure out how to do autonomous landing, I don't think there's much to copy. See http://morpheuslander.jsc.nasa.gov/

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "copied and stolen technology"

          "trying to figure out autonomous landing"?

          You must've missed the MSL.Soft retrorocket skycrane landing on Mars. All autonomous.

          Was your head buried in the sand along with BEAGLE?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Considering the failed mars landers the US / Europe have built

        Good first attempt and unlike the US, the didn't kill dogs and chimps to get there

      5. TheRealRoland

        >stolen the Concord

        Still grapes on you, huh?

      6. Not That Andrew

        @AC Re: stolen technology

        2 words: Qian Xuesen

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Isn't a Jade Rabbit a bit cold to use though?

    3. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      That is a great effort at a first go!

      Let's see now.

      They launched a rocket into orbit. They escaped low Earth orbit and successfully transitioned into Lunar orbit. They then managed to soft land the probe.

      Of course, the Chinese didn't have to contend with two incompatible measurement systems, like we do in the US.

      They then managed to activate that probe for a bit.

      Now, likely as not, they'll have better materials science to support future and even more successful space operations.

      Space is hostile enough, adding a solid body into the mix complicated things tremendously.

      As NASA learned when Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing, then learned that lunar dust was a tenacious beast that followed astronauts everywhere.

  2. Don Jefe
    Happy

    Fixed Landmark

    How do we really know the green bunny (Yutu in Google translated English -> Chinese -> English) is really dying? We sure as fuck don't seem in too big a hurry to find out.

    If I were a large country with a growing economy that was 100% dependent on playing eternal debt swap with the US I would say my geological treasure seeking lunar explorer was broken as well. 'Nope, no functioning lunar rover here'.

    1. Chris G

      Re: Fixed Landmark

      The 'Fixed Landmark' is probably at this moment becoming a MagLev launcher to deliver valuable ores to Earth or to chuck rubble at offensive people.

      1. Don Jefe
        Unhappy

        Re: Fixed Landmark

        Man. All that work creating a vehicle to carry a subtly hilarious commentary on Google Translate shortcomings and it failed :(

  3. Longrod_von_Hugendong
    Angel

    Maybe it vibrated...

    to a stop :D

  4. david 12 Silver badge

    Insolation

    insOlation is spelled with an O, as in sOlar.

    I wondered what kind of insulation failure they might have had. Thermal insulation? Electrical Insulation? But on reading the article I see that the kind of problem they had was with Spelling Insolation.

    1. Vulch

      Re: Insolation

      No, insUlation. The solar panels are supposed to fold back over the body during the night to help keep the internals warm enough. The mechanical problem appears to have been that one of them didn't.

  5. Scroticus Canis
    Happy

    Should have used Duracells ...

    ... didn't they get those commercials on Chinese TV?

    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Thumb Up

      Re: Should have used Duracells ...

      Yeah, that was my first thought: dodgy Chinese off-brand batteries.

      Seriously, though, a good first effort! Full marks for just getting there, extra credit for being able to drive around for this long.

  6. TopOnePercent
    Joke

    They should have outsourced some of the wiring design to Italy. A small electrical fire would be enough to perk it up for a few more days.

  7. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    good night and...

    好运气的小兔子

    "Good luck little rabbit."

  8. Lost in Cyberspace

    Nah

    It was bad capacitors to blame

  9. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Terminator

    Defunct?

    Or a FULLY OPERATIONAL BATTLE STATION?

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