China is now on the bandwagon to reach the Moon after the United States and the former Soviet Union. The exploration mission was successfully launched on 14 December 2013, a decade after China"s first sending an astronaut into space.
The rover, affectionately named Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, was lowered from the lander through two rails and deployed to trek on the lunar surface for a three-month period. The rover and the lander then took photos of each other and sent images back to Earth. The six-wheeled rover is a solar-powered vehicle equipped with a 3-D panoramic camera system, proudly developed by a Hong Kong Polytechnic University professor, Mr Yung Kai-leung. The system needs to endure the challenging conditions of extreme temperatures in a vacuum environment. The rover is also equipped with a robot arm to probe chemical composition of the soil and a ground-penetrating radar to scan the Moon's sub-surface.
Why are countries racing to explore the Moon? It is believed that the Moon is a bonanza of rare materials such as uranium and titanium. They may also seek to pursue scientific activities that address fundamental questions about the history of Earth, the solar system and eventually the universe. Establishing a human settlement on the Moon may perhaps be the ultimate objective.
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