Google – AFP, 12 February 2014
This screen
grab taken from CCTV footage shows a photo of the Jade Rabbit
moon rover taken
by the Chang'e-3 probe lander on December 15, 2013 (CCTV/
AFP, Cctv)
|
Beijing —
China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover has died on the surface of the moon,
state media reported Wednesday, in a major setback for the country's ambitious
space programme.
The
country's first moon rover "could not be restored to full function",
the state-owned China News Service said in a brief report, after the landmark
mission ran into mechanical problems last month.
The Jade
Rabbit, or Yutu in Chinese, was deployed on the moon's surface on December 15
and was a huge source of pride in China, only the third country to complete a
lunar rover mission after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
The landing
was a key step forward in Beijing's ambitious military-run space programme,
which include plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually
sending a human to the moon.
The silver
rover experienced a "mechanical control abnormality" late January due
to "the complicated lunar surface environment", according to the
official Xinhua news agency, and was unable to function since then.
Condolences
poured in on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, where Internet users mourned
the demise of the rover, China News Service said in its brief report titled
"Loss of lunar rover".
The Jade
Rabbit rover had sent back its first pictures from the moon, and officials lauded
the first lunar soft landing in nearly four decades as a step forward for
"mankind as a whole".
"Exploration
of outer space is an unremitting pursuit of mankind," China's space
agency, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for
National Defence (SASTIND) said after the rover was deployed on the moon.
The mission
reflects "the new glory of China to scale the peaks in world science and
technology areas," it said, adding it was committed to exploring and using
space "for peaceful purposes".
The lunar
mission, which came a decade after China first sent an astronaut into space,
was seen as a symbol of the country's rising global stature and technological
advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes
of the once-impoverished nation.
Beijing
plans to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send a
human to the moon.
The
potential to extract the moon's resources has been touted as a key reason
behind Beijing's space programme, with the moon believed to hold uranium,
titanium, and other mineral resources, as well as offering the possibility of
solar power generation.
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