The Chinese moon mission that includes the lander Chang'e-4 and rover Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2) awoke to begin their eighth month of work on the far side of the Moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Saturday.

"The Chang'e-4 lander successfully awoke from dormant mode on Friday, 7:12 p.m. Beijing time [11:12 a.m. GMT] and began the eighth month of work on the Moon. The payloads on board, including radiation and neutron dosimeters and a low-frequency radio spectrograph, will turn on sequentially, and the research will be conducted as scheduled", the statement read.

According to the statement, the Yutu 2 lunar rover awoke slightly earlier and its payload will restart shortly in order to carry out the planned work. It is equipped with a high-resolution camera that transmits unique pictures of the Moon's dark side.

As of today, the rover has travelled more than 210 meters (689 feet), the statement added.

The mission has been dormant since July 9 for a lunar night that lasts approximately two weeks on Earth.

China launched its first lunar satellite, Chang'e, in October 2007. It worked in the lunar orbit for 16 months and successfully landed on the Moon in March 2009. Chang'e collected data that Chinese scientists then used to create the first heat map of the Moon.

The Chang'e-2 lunar satellite was launched in October 2010 to take and transmit high-resolution images of the far side of the Moon's surface. After that, the satellite flew by an asteroid called Toutatis and took pictures of it as well.

In 2013, China's Chang'e-3 delivered the Yutu rover to the Moon. It carried out a study of the lunar surface for 31 months, 19 months longer than initially planned. The rover managed to complete numerous complex missions, including taking the first-ever pictures of the Moon's geological layers. The mission was retired on 3 August 2016.

The Chang'e-4 lunar rover, launched on 7 December 2018, landed on the Von Karman Crater located in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon on 3 January 2019. The Yutu 2 rover discovered two types of lunar mantle material on the far side of the Moon. Further measurements and experiments that Chinese scientists plan to conduct with the help of the lunar rover will aid in verifying other theories describing the formation of the Moon and understand which of them is closest to reality.

In China's plans is to deliver lunar soil to Earth on Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 and then begin preparations for a manned flight to the Moon and construction of the first lunar station there.

Chang'e-7 will conduct a general study of the Moon's south pole, including terrain and landforms, while Chang'e-8 is expected to test several key technologies on the lunar surface. In April 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) head, Zhang Kejian, announced that China plans to build a research station on the lunar south pole and carry out a

lunar manned mission within the next 10 years.

Source: RIA Novosti

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Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
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