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China's moon rover proves the moon has different rocks (update)
China's Jade Rabbit (Yutu) successfully came back from the dead after a serious malfunction in 2014. (*see update below) Scientists have finished analyzing the data China's moon rover Yutu beamed back sometime ago. As it turns out, the rocks the Jade Rabbit collected can reveal more about the moon's younger years when there were small volcanic eruptions all over the place. See, the Chang'e-3 probe that served as its ride to the moon in 2013 landed on a "relatively young" impact basin visible from Earth, giving Yutu the chance to collect samples that are only 3 billion-years-old. The samples brought back by the Apollo missions were as old as 4 billion years.
RIP: China's Jade Rabbit rover dies on the moon (update: it came back to life!)
After facing a series of troubles since its arrival on the moon, China's Jade Rabbit rover has been officially pronounced dead. China News Service broke the story earlier today, stating that the Chinese explorer, also known as Yutu, "could not be restored to full function." Jade Rabbit reportedly suffered mechanical problems last month, on January 25th, and was consequently never able to work properly again -- it was due to "the complicated lunar surface environment." This is a huge blow to the future of China's space program, one that aims to have an Earth-orbiting station and land a human on the moon within the next decade. Still, getting a rover to the moon is no easy feat, so the country has nothing to be ashamed of. Rest in peace, Yutu. Update: Well, in a strange turn of events, state-run news outlet Xinhua is reporting that Jade Rabbit "has come back to life." According to Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesperson with China's lunar program, the rover "went to sleep under abnormal status" but is now "back to its normal signal reception function." With connection established, experts believe there might still be hope for Yutu: "The rover stands a chance of being saved now that it is still alive," Zhaoyu told Xinhua.
China sending a probe to the moon next year to look for Moonbase Alpha
State news agency Xinhua is reporting that China is planning to launch a probe to the moon in the second half of 2013. The Chang'e-3, named after the Chinese moon goddess, will deposit a lander and rover on our natural satellite to survey its bumpy surface. It'll launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province and is a sign of the continuing ambition of the nation's space program -- after it deposited a crew on its Tiangong-1 space station two months ago.
NASA's Athlete Mars rover does a little dance, gets down tonight (video)
Its been a few years since we last checked in on NASA's All Terrain Hex Limbed Extra Terrestrial Explorer rover -- aka, Athlete. Now a half-scale working prototype standing 15 feet tall, weighing 2.5 tons (about 2,300 kg), and capable of a 1.25 mph (2 kmph) top speed has been set loose for testing by its Jet Propulsion Laboratory creators. Its first task, set to begin next month in Arizona, will be to complete a test circuit of at least 25 miles (about 40 km) in two weeks under its own power. Failing that, we hear Woz is looking for a dance partner. See what we mean in the video of Athlete demonstrating a flare for cargo transport after the break.
Russia's Lunokhod 1 robotic moon bounces back laser beams after 40 year nap
Back before dubstup and chillwave there was a decade called "the nineteen seventies" which capped off a delicious space race between the US and Russia. Also, other things happened. While America was busy shipping humans up to the moon, Russia managed to get two robots up there, the Lunokhod 1 (pictured, in a photo apparently taken in 1904) and Lunokhod 2. They were lost a few years later, but have recently been rediscovered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Lunokhod 1 has been put back in use for one of its original purposes: laser ranging. A team from UC San Diego managed to get a lock on the bot and bounced 2,000 photons off the rover's laser retroreflector on their first try. They'll be using Lunokhod 1 and some Apollo-planted retroreflectors to test Earth-Moon distance at millimeter precision to test Einstein's theory of gravity.
NASA's Desert RATS field tests the Lunar Electric Rover on simulated 14-day mission
NASA just took its fancy Lunar Electric Rover for a spin around the Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona for a bit of simulated moon exploration. The 14 day mission had a couple of crew members holed up inside the vehicle for the duration, proving the suitability of the vehicle for such a lengthy jaunt -- and providing for a good amount of Odd Couple-esque hijinks inside, to be sure. The LER also managed to track down "lost" crew members in a trial to test out the navigation systems of the rover, and docked with a habitation module mounted on the ATHLETE vehicle. Sounds like a real party down there! Video is after the break. [Via AutoblogGreen]
NASA's PILOT project could autonomously extract oxygen from lunar soil
We've got means to extract oxygen from water, a portable bar, and even ways to deprive entire server farms of the sustenance, but a new project being tackled by Lockheed Martin is hoping to create O2 on the moon. A critical part of NASA's PILOT (Precursor In-situ Lunar Oxygen Testbed) initiative, this digger bot will work hand-in-hand with a "processing plant that will add hydrogen to moon soil, heat it to 1,652-degrees Fahrenheit, condense the steam, and finally extract the oxygen." Additionally, the blue LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) box atop the three-foot-long machine can assist it in locating "oxygen-rich lunar soil and autonomously carry it to a processing plant." The overriding goal is to use the newly extracted O2 for air, or moreover, to combine it with hydrogen and produce water for the four astronauts that the lunar base could support. Unfortunately, there's no timetable as to when we'll actually see the PILOT roll into action, but we're most interested in porting this bad boy over to Mars along with half the traffic in LA.[Via The Raw Feed]
