NASA insiders announced that China’s first unmanned lunar rover, the Wee-Tou (“Jade Rabbit”) was reactivated and is functional. The report was first made after a post on a Chinese blog was found regarding the probe. The online post on the SNS read, “Jade Rabbit has risen again. It has been operating for 10 months which is 7 months longer than originally planned.”
The director of China’s lunar exploration project explained at a conference held in Macao about the cameras, radar and infrared video devices that were included in their probe. He assured his listeners that the lunar rover was still fully functional.
The “Jade Rabbit” rover was launched on December 15th, 2013 aboard the unmanned spacecraft Chang-Uh 3. However in late January this year, China’s space agency discovered that the probe had problems with its motor. Although the Chinese space agency regained a signal from the rover later in February, they lost complete control over the small robot by the end of the month.
China has become the third county in the world to send a man into space in a craft they had developed independently. It is also the third nation to send unmanned exploration probes to the lunar surface.
Since the nation is entering the fall holiday season, many Chinese citizens who heard the news that the probe was again fully functional made jokes about is that go, “’Jade Rabbit’ has woken up to the smell of Thanksgiving Moon Cakes!”
