Chang’e-3 and Jade Rabbit blasts off to the Moon

(Credits to BBC)

On Monday, the Chang'e-3 (嫦娥三號) mission blasted off from Xichang with a payload includes a landing module and a six-wheeled robotic rover called “Jade Rabbit” (玉兔).

The mission is expected to land on Bay of Rainbows in the Moon's northern hemisphere on December 14 and and start a 90-day exploration of the moon's surface and subsurface. The mission, aimed at exploring the Moon's surface and looking for natural resources such as rare metals, will be a milestone in China's long-term space exploration programme, which includes establishing a permanent space station in Earth orbit.

This will be the first lunar rover mission from China, and only the third robotic rover mission to ever land on the lunar surface. The “Jade Rabbit” rover carries sophisticated ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust. The name of the lunar rover, chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters, derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.

The Chang’e 3 launch comes at a time when the Asian superpower is asserting itself in many areas. China considers its space programme a symbol of its rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as of the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once impoverished nation. Astronauts of the American Apollo era Eugene Cernan and "Buzz" Aldrin have noted that the landing module is substantially bigger than it needs to be, which suggests that this may be a precursor technology to a human landing.

The groundbreaking launch, however, was not met with all smiles as rocket debris was was scattered across 11 villages in an area where some 160,000 people live. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the roofs of the two houses along with a granary near the city of Suining were destroyed.