China on the Moon
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, December 14, 2013
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7 comments
Via the BBC: China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon
China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, the first soft landing there for 37 years.
On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module used thrusters to touch down, marking the latest step in China’s ambitious space exploration programme.
Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".
The landing itself was pretty cool—details at the link.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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They learned well from our folly. The Moon was not meant for humans.
@Tillman:
Well, three years ago, despite all warnings that it wasn’t meant for humans, they went ahead and landed on Europa. The press has since suppressed any news about it.
In Chinese folklore the Jade Rabbit was the Moon’s companion. Where we have a Man in the Moon, the Chinese have a rabbit.
I was excited to hear about the ground penetrating radar on the rover. That could tell us a lot of interesting things.
As a spacexploration-aholic I can only say, “Good on them.” The more the merrier.
When the Vulcans come in 2063, the ship that will come to meet them may not be the USS Enterprise….
It may be the CSS Shanghai or the ISS Bangalore.
Congratulations to the Chinese. And (inevitably) bringing politics into it, this distills in a nutshell why I could never be a supporter of the modern day Republican party. The Republican party have moved so far away from its 50s-70s era philosophy that they have devolved to the party of “We can’t, we shouldn’t, it’s impossible, no big projects, no visionary infrastructure, let the rest of the world do it but we can’t.” If the roof leaks throw a blue tarp on it and complain about the shiftless youth of today.