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China's Jade Rabbit Fights To Come Back From the Dead
Despite being declared officially lost, the Chinese moon rover may yet have some life left. Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "CNN reports that reports of Jade Rabbit's demise may have been premature as signs are emerging that China's first lunar rover may be up and running again. Following technical malfunctions Xinhua says that the lunar rover had lost communication with mission control but on Thursday the state news agency said that the rover was "fully awake" and had returned to its normal signal-receiving status. "Jade Rabbit has fully resurrected and is able to receive signals, but still suffers a mechanical control abnormality," says China's lunar program spokesman Pei Zhaoyu. "The rover entered hibernation while in an abnormal state. We were worried it wouldn't be able to make it through the extreme cold of the lunar night. But it came back alive. The rover stands a chance of being saved as it is still alive." The lunar rover's end seemed near when it signed off at the end of January with a poignant message: "Goodnight humanity." Yutu, as the device is known in Mandarin, had been out of action for two weeks following a technical malfunction, and media around the world filed its obituary late on Wednesday after a short statement on Chinese state media alerted the world to its apparent terminal failings. Should Jade Rabbit make a full recovery, it would cap another success for space exploration, which has seen NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, currently exploring the red planet, far outlast its expected lifespan."
and was recovering from all the partying and travel back to the Moon.
(Seriously, great news!)
The China National Space Administration has already announced they will no longer be sourcing components via Alibaba or eBay.
Countries with engineering expertise, like Germany, any of the Norse countries, Japan, Taiwan, I could go on...
Thing about China is that their primary focus (permeates all of their culture) is to maintain high appearances even if everything underneath is complete crap. A good anecdote and analogy for this are their prize schools, which from the outside look like something you'd find in Abu Dhabi, but inside are literally falling apart and are a safety hazard to students.
With that in mind, if the Chinese are saying it is 'awake' with control abnormalities, I'd guess in reality it is about 5x worse than they claim.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Chinese have the skill to make both cheap crap and premium components. It's really only about the targeted price point and what the customer orders.
Chinese have the skill to make both cheap crap and premium components. It's really only about the targeted price point and what the customer orders.
Except when the customer orders premium components, they produce a few to prove they can do it, then deliver cheap crap.
Apparently Aston-Martin are having to recall most of their recent cars because they ordered premium components from China and... didn't get them.
it signed off at the end of January with a poignant message: "Goodnight humanity."
No it didn't. Some guy in a press office wrote it.
Can we please stop anthropomorphising rovers? They hate that.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It actually is. As noted by John Stewart in his humorous relay of the previous "death of the lunar sex toy" news.
This sounds more like a phony story ordered by Party elites to cover up the embarrassment of failure. They can just pretend it started working again (with the camera mysteriously failing) and save face with bogus tweets and press releases.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Mostly dead is a little bit alive. A little bit alive they can work with.
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
Mission Control: "Brave, brave Jade Rabbit! You shall not have died in vain!"
Jade Rabbit: "Uh, I'm-I'm not quite dead, sir."
Mission Control: "Well, you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain!"
Jade Rabbit: "Uh, I-I think uh, I could pull through, sir."
Mission Control: "Oh, I see."
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
China's still saying it's dead; it's amateur radio enthusiasts who have detected its broadcast.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
To be exact, they're saying it's in exactly the same malfunctioning state it was before the lunar winter.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Because this was fucking heartbreaking: https://xkcd.com/695/
Thing about China is that their primary focus (permeates all of their culture) is to maintain high appearances even if everything underneath is complete crap.
Actually China is happy to manufacture whatever the market wants. Do you want cheap and dangerous electronics which spew RFI and may burst into flames? You got it. Do you want excellent optical components for high-end telescopes? You got that too!
The only question is what level of quality control and oversight you're willing to pay for. I've had circuit boards manufactured in china which almost fell apart when I got them. Holes weren't centred, silkscreen was patchy, and the solder mask was a mess. I've also had an 8 layer board manufactured complete with gold plating and custom materials for the RF path which came out perfect, it also cost 100x the price of the cheap one.
You can get cheap plastic computers from China that may or may not boot up. Or you can get Apple Macs made in China.
What are you willing to pay for?