On December 14 , 2013 , China ’s Yutu lunar lander and rover , also known as “ Jade Rabbit , ” touched down on the aerofoil of the Moon , the first landing on the Moon since the Soviet Union ’s Luna 24 in 1976 . And now , China has secrete hundreds of high - resolution images from the successful mission , unwrap sensational views of the lunar airfoil .
All of the image are available on thewebsitefor the China National Space Administration ( CNSA ) , although the site itself is a little hard to navigate . Helpfully , Emily Lakdawalla fromThe Planetary Societyhas centre through all of the images from both thelanderandroverand host them online for you to peruse .
There are far too many images for us to go into great contingent here . Some of the more fascinating reveal the furrowed , grey terrain of the lunar surface with the dark sky above . Of course , principal do n’t appear in the images because the Light Within reflecting from the surface parry them out , like how you ca n’t see stars in the nighttime sky when you look at a street visible light .
Here we can see the lander on the Earth’s surface , as seen by the rover . Chinese Academy of Sciences / CNSA / The Science and program Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration / Emily Lakdawalla
Some of the other more intriguing paradigm show the scouter on the surface , with its progress marked out by its cartroad . Others show some stunningly ground - like stone formations on the surface near the landing place situation , the Zi Wei crater ( or Purple Palace in English ) .
The exceedingly insensate lunar nights , which last two weeks , finally realise the rover become motionless in early 2014 . But both the rover and lander are still pass on with Earth , stay on to give scientist data from the surface .
The level of point in the image is astonishing . Chinese Academy of Sciences / CNSA / The Science and software Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration / Emily Lakdawalla
Among the discovery made by Yutu was anew type of lunar rockwith a low amount of Si oxide , a high amount of branding iron oxide , and a middling amount of titanium dioxide , something that had not been found on the Moon before . This hint at the hypothesis of large shock during the formation of the lunar mantlepiece .
This mission will be come after by an even more ambitious one , named Chang’e-5 , in 2017 . This will attempt to down on the Moon and return sample to Earth , the first clip that will have been done since 1976 . In 2018 , China also wants to become the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon . This rapidly ameliorate blank major power certainly is n’t draw any punches .
