[meteorite-list] Chinese Moon Lander and Rover Wake Up After Weeks of Sleep

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/chinese-moon-lander-rover-wake-after-weeks-sleep-2D11909188

Chinese moon lander and rover wake up after weeks of sleep
Alan Boyle
NBC News
January 12, 2014

The Xinhua news agency said the six-wheeled Yutu rover - which was named 
after a "Jade Rabbit" in Chinese mythology - was the first to wake up, 
on Saturday. The Chang'e 3 lander, named after the moon goddess who kept 
Yutu by her side, followed on Sunday.

Both spacecraft draw most of their power from solar arrays, which means 
they must conserve power when their landing site in the Bay of Rainbows, 
or Sinus Iridum, goes into darkness. They're equipped with plutonium-powered 
backup batteries to keep the electronics warm amid overnight temperatures 
that go as low as 292 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius).

"During the lunar night, the lander and the rover were in a power-off 
condition, and the communication with Earth was also cut off," Zhou Jianliang, 
chief engineer of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, said in a report 
from Xinhua.

Chang'e 3 landed on Dec. 14 and rolled out a ramp to deliver Yutu to the 
surface for an initial round of reconnoitering - and then both spacecraft 
went into hibernation on Dec. 25-26. From now on, the spacecraft are expected 
to split their time into roughly two-week rounds of waking and sleeping.

Chang'e 3 is the first mission to operate on the surface of the moon since 
1976, when the Soviets' Luna 24 robotic spacecraft gathered up samples 
of moon dirt and sent them back to Earth. The rover is due to operate 
for at least three months - collecting and analyzing lunar samples, and 
mapping the subsurface with ground-penetrating radar. The lander is built 
to make astronomical observations for at least a year, drawing upon optical 
telescope gear and an extreme ultraviolet camera.

Both spacecraft are equipped with cameras and sent an initial round of 
snapshots back to Earth before their hibernation.

China is already making plans for a 2017 mission that would bring samples 
back from the moon.