BEIJING – Chinese state media early Sunday began transmitting images and video taken by its moon rover, a gold-hued unmanned exploration vehicle named the Jade Rabbit after the story of a mythological Chinese moon goddess who kept a pet rabbit.
The images were sparking excitement among space enthusiasts.
"It is just beautiful to see the surface of the moon up close in a way we haven’t in years. The images we remember of the moon were taken decades ago. These are the first photographs of the Internet age,’’ said Morris Jones, an Australian space analyst based in Sydney.
Maximizing the publicity value of the landing, China is posting video and images on state websites.
After days in orbit around the moon, the lunar probe known as Chang’e-3 touched down on the surface at 9:11 p.m. Saturday, Beijing time, in the Bay of Rainbows, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center reported. The six-wheeled rover then separated from the landing vehicle. At 4:35 a.m. Sunday, the rover touched the moon’s surface, leaving tracks in the lunar soil.
The rover is expected to spend three months on the moon exploring its “geological structure and surface substances and looking for natural resources,’’ the official New China News Agency said ...
On December 13, 1972, the last person to stand on the Moon (Eugene Cernan) said,
As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just say what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. "Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17".
This was supposed to happen by 2001.
