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NASA and China's Yutu Rover Are Still Making Discoveries On the Moon (examiner.com)

Posted by timothy on from the best-cheese-ever dept.

MarkWhittington writes: The last time men walked on the moon was during the flight of Apollo 17, 43 Decembers ago. According to a story in Forbes, lunar soil and rock samples returned by the last moonwalkers are still yielding new insights into the history and nature of Earth's nearest neighbor. In the meantime, the latest explorer to go to the moon, a Chinese robotic rover named Yutu has made some discoveries of its own.

34 comments

  1. Has anybody found by rossdee · · Score: 3, Funny

    A Monolith

    1. Re:Has anybody found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last I heard, Yutu still hasn't found what it's looking for.

    2. Re: Has anybody found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it's too busy Staring at the Sun?

    3. Re:Has anybody found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why, did you lose one?

  2. Re:Huh, imagine that by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

    We don't actually need to send people to a far away, dead hostile rock? Just send boxes on wheels, and have them fly back the dead rocks the geeks like to fantasize about, like Luna 16.

    Frankly, if people aren't going to go there, why bother sending the box on wheels? Not like the composition of moon rocks matters, really (absent some need to mine them, of course, which pretty much means "people in outer space", since there's no shortage of metals to mine here on Earth).

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  3. Yutu rover confirms moon made of bean curd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China to mine the moon

  4. Re:Huh, imagine that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why bother looking at the light from distant stars? Not like the composition of stars matter, really?

    I thought it's because we are curious and knowledge and spinoffs etc???

  5. I must have been sick that day. by sims+2 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This is the first I have heard that china sent a rover to the moon.

    Although I can't really say I am surprised that it only worked right the first few days.

    I wonder why it didn't make the news here?

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    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    1. Re:I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Maybe you just have not been paying attention:
      http://www.space.com/28810-moon-history-chinese-lunar-rover.html

      For that matter the GRAIL experiment has done more to expose the inner structure of the Moon than either of the points raised in the article
      http://www.space.com/18780-grail-moon-gravity-map.html

    2. Re:I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably filter bubble and bad news sources. It's worth, when you get a story that you think is important or know something about, going back and comparing several different news sources. Look at the facts in each. Identify which ones are important in each story (e.g. the attacker was from out of the area, the policeman shot first, the policeman was black too, there was a report of an armed robbery, the policeman had been warned to take care of an unarmed mental patient, the film of the incident showed no gun etc. etc.). When you compare different news sources with different biases (don't think liberal vs. conservative here, there are lots of other biases) you should find important facts in each p>story. Some news sources with opposite biases will de-emphasise those facts but will still list them. Those are the good news sources where you can use your ability to read between the lines to work out when there might be something more to the story. Others will completely ignore things that don't fit with their own bias. Those are the bad ones which are useful mostly for learning where the ignorant get their views.

      Use this as a chance to make sure that you you see, at least occasionally news sources including ones that have some level of Asian / Western Pacific bias rather than Americas bias. Your understanding of the world will increase.

    3. Re:I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://science.slashdot.org/st...

      Yep, too bad it was never mentioned here.

    4. Re: I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you are a racist crackerjack?

    5. Re:I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's information bias from your source of media.
      Another example is the "only worked right for the first few days". The article states "lunar days", which are ~28 earth days long. So this would be some more information bias.

    6. Re: I must have been sick that day. by donscarletti · · Score: 1

      AFAIK, on a tidally locked body, a sidereal day and a year take the same time. You can pick whichever you wish, depending on how long you wish to sound like. You can just call it a "month" though, since cycle of the phases of the earth correspond to those of the moon (new earth corresponds to full moon, full earth with new moon) and do away with ambiguity.

      To veer off topic, something that ticked me off with the Martian is that nobody reminded how long a Martian sol lasts, but they were used for time periods even on earth and in space, meaning I had no idea of elapsed time.

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
    7. Re: I must have been sick that day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why you should have picked the book. It was there.

      1 sol is 24h 37m 22.663s so the difference isn't that big - a technicality of losing "sync" with Earth days, but hardly affecting our work/sleep cycle.

  6. Fuck Forbes by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    According to a story in Forbes

    Naaaaah.

    PS It's the same article you linked to just a few days ago.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Fuck Forbes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PS It's the same article you linked to just a few days ago.

      It's bad enough we have to deal with Eathan SpamsWithABang, now they're shoehorning in dupes of his shitty blog (that consists of nothing more than rehashes of stale news that is better reported elsewhere) into actual Slashdot summaries.

      Downmod/downrate all FartsWithABang articles in the http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl, as well as all articles that link to his blogspam.

      And editors? Whatever he's paying you, it's not worth it.

    2. Re:Fuck Forbes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Timmay!

      (and some additional comment for the spam filter)

    3. Re:Fuck Forbes by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      According to a story in Forbes

      Naaaaah.

      PS It's the same article you linked to just a few days ago.

      And since Forbes wont let you in if you are running an adblocker, now there is a really good reason to not RTFA.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    4. Re:Fuck Forbes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i use addblock+ and i have no issues using forbes website :/

  7. Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by RoverDaddy · · Score: 2

    Are you aware that the three Russian robotic sample missions returned just a few hundred -grams- of lunar soil, while the Apollo manned flights returned hundreds of -kilograms-? The later lunar astronauts were also able to study geology before their flights and actually make intelligent decisions about -what- samples to return. Hardly the same level of achievement or the same scientific value. It would be really sad if all we had were the 326 grams of lunar soil returned by the Luna missions.

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    RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    1. Re:Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To this, I would ask what the cost per kilogram might be. It's got to be a lot cheaper to use robotic craft if sample return is our only objective.

    2. Re:Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Most US returned rocks have never been studied

    3. Re:Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      It would be really sad if all we had were the 326 grams of lunar soil returned by the Luna missions.

      For the cost of Apollo, we could have sent hundreds of robotic missions. The human missions were just a few days each. The robots can continue to work for years.

    4. Re:Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32581790/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/moon-rock-museum-just-petrified-wood/#.VoAFZoTtlNY

  8. Re:Huh, imagine that by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 0

    Spinoffs are a myth. ROI is very poor compared with direct investment.

  9. Re:Huh, imagine that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: USSR

  10. Yutu by Pseudonymus+Bosch · · Score: 1

    Yutu: But still haven't found what I'm looking for.

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    __
    Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
    GW Bu
  11. So vague they didn't make the submission? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And these insights are so important they don't even make the submission?

    China has discovered a rock with a new mineral composition ratio.

    The NASA article seems to be retrospective on why sending a man to the moon helped them discover orange soil (soil with lots of fused glass). Claiming that it was because he kick some up that it was discovered.

    So in the great global pissing match, China said "look at me look at me" and USA said "been there done that".

  12. Re:Huh, imagine that by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

    Direct investment is impossible. People won't allow that much of their taxes to be spent on research unless it's for a clear specific goal, like the moon.

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  13. How about rovers on Moon instead of Mars? by k6mfw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Though everyone loves Mars and those rovers are exciting, I was thinking how cool it would be to have a modern lunar rover with the HD cameras. OK, Chinese placed Yutu which I haven't followed its news that much.

    While US has spent billions on Mars rovers, why not use that expertise to deploy lunar rovers (oh wait, policy is to avoid talking about the Moon). Imagine a rover to go to those craters where the sun never shines to sample soil for ice? A rover to visit Saturn V third stage impact areas? Or better yet a rover to visit Apollo landing sites and take really good pictures (though quality will be so good many luddites will claim it's proof those landings were done at Area 51). It would be also interesting to see how solar radiation has changed composition of the Apollo hardware (how much of the colors are left on the flags?).

    Paul Spudis commented rover visiting Apollo sites will be very interesting, however, US prohibits disturbing Apollo landing sites. But if rover was an international program?

    Heh, I was thinking of a Kelly Freas painting, what if they visit an Apollo 15, 16, or 17 site and find the Apollo rover is not there. But its tracks go off into the horizon. So this new rover follows the tracks and then finds the Apollo rover (where it ended when batteries spent) up on blocks with all the good stuff stripped from it.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
    1. Re:How about rovers on Moon instead of Mars? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      Though everyone loves Mars and those rovers are exciting, I was thinking how cool it would be to have a modern lunar rover with the HD cameras.

      You are wanting to read this. In short, Google thinks so too, and is putting up $30 million in prizes if the competing teams can put a rover on the Moon and roll it 500 meters. The deadline is the end of 2017. One of the teams has signed a launch contract already, so they might make it. Audi has signed on to back the German team, so there may be a rover with an Audi logo on it rolling around on the Moon in a year or two.

  14. Re:Huh, imagine that by Bengie · · Score: 1

    The Moon has something like 6x the rare Earth metal concentration of the Earth. That's almost a magnitude better, and no environmental issues to worry about.