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China's Rover Sends Back Lunar Panorama Image

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China's Rover Sends Back Lunar Panorama Image

China State Media has released a panoramic image of the moon's surface taken by its Jade Rabbit rover, which landed a week ago
11:43am UK, Saturday 21 December 2013

China has released a panoramic picture of its Jade Rabbit rover's landing area on the moon, one week after the country's first probe landed without a hitch.

The moon buggy, nicknamed "Jade Rabbit", rolled onto the surface from an unmanned spacecraft.

Chinese officials said the rover, officially named Chang'e 3, has started its scientific operation in search of natural resources.

The chief designer of the Chang'e 3 probing system, Liu Enhai, speaking on China's state television CCTV, said: "The entire picture was pieced together with 60 photos taken three times from three angles: zero degrees, 15 degrees down from horizon and 30 degrees.

"The purpose of shooting from three angles is to (capture) from one side to the other in order to see farther."

It is the first "soft landing" of a probe on the moon for 37 years following the US and former Soviet Union.

A soft landing does not damage the craft and the equipment it takes.

China said last week that it aims to launch the next generation of unmanned moon probe in 2017 with the key aim of collecting and bringing back lunar samples.

Advancing China's space programme has been a priority for the leadership, with President Xi Jinping calling for China to establish itself as a space power.
China's Rover Sends Back Lunar Panorama Image
 
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Hope we'll get more pictures when Yutu awakes but that's already amazing !
 
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Fly me to the Moon... China stakes claim to lunar surface after circulating new pictures taken by its Jade Rabbit rover

By DAMIEN GAYLE

PUBLISHED: 20:38 GMT, 10 January 2014 | UPDATED: 00:30 GMT, 11 January 2014

China's space agency today distributed fresh new pictures of the Moon's surface from its lunar lander and rover. The Jade Rabbit rover can be seen trundling across the pockmarked surface of Earth's satellite in pictures released today by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Chasing the horizon: The sky over the Moon appears inky black in this picture showing the Jade Rabbit rover trundling across the lunar surface taken from the Chang'e 3 lander and released today by Chinese scientists

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Great leap forward: The successful soft-landing of the Chang'e 3 lander in December made China the third country to complete a lunar rover mission after the United States and Russia

The country's achievement comes just a decade after it first sent an astronaut into space, and has got the Chinese leadership on a patriotic high.

The mission is seen as a symbol of China's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-impoverished nation.


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And now what? A photo taken from the Chang'e-3 lander shows the barren landscape of the Moon

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Chang'e-3's soft-landing was carried out 12 days after it blasted off on an Long March-3B carrier rocket
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