Chinese Moon Rover Says an Early Goodnight

hackingbear writes "The Chinese moon rover, Jade Rabbit, encountered an abnormality in its control mechanism before its planned sleep during the 14-day-long lunar night. In the form of a diary, the Jade Rabbit said, "The shi-fu ('kung-fu masters,' meaning the scientists and engineers) are working around the clock trying to fix the problem and their eyes look like a rabbit's (red due to fatigue), but I may not be able to survive over this lunar night." (translated, original in Chinese.) The rover landed on the moon on Dec 14 and was designed to operate for three months."

Comments

Re:Only one page of comments

[DahGhostfacedFiddlah]

This is a really weird feeling. I'm 90% sure you're a Chinese propagandist, but I 100% agree with your words.

Re:Brief translation from Chinese

[taiwanjohn]

Since this is their first lunar rover, there's no precedent either way. However it is normal for Chinese to speak of themselves in 3rd-pers in some situations. This is due to their emphasis on titles instead of names. For example, a parent might say, "Daddy wants you to brush your teeth," instead of "I want you to..." This general pattern is used whenever there is a title of some sort, such as boss, uncle, doctor, mayor, etc..

That said, I have no idea whether the GP's translation is authentic. I haven't been following this news in the Chinese press. It's a bit over the top, but I wouldn't put it past them, especially as a tactic to engage children with STEM education. It strikes me as the sort of thing Western broadcasters do at Christmas, showing "Santa's sleigh" on the weather radar.