The rover rode to the moon aboard the Chang'e 3 spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA / Sean Smith
The mission represents the first time any spacecraft has soft landed on the moon in over 37 years.
Some would say that China's space program has been going rather well lately having reached several significant milestones in the last few years. This trend was set to continue this week as their most ambitious unmanned mission to date, the Jade Rabbit
rover, successfully touched down on the moon ready to begin its exploration of the lunar surface.
Crowds celebrated as footage of the rover driving down the ramp from its lander was broadcast on live television. The Jade Rabbit
is set to spend three months exploring the lunar landscape during which time it will send back large amount of data and give scientists an opportunity to test out technologies that will be used in future missions.
The endeavor is but one of several planned moon missions that China has in the works, with a sample return mission scheduled for 2017 and a highly ambitious manned landing planned for 2025.
Source: Sky News | Comments (39)