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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.

16 of 34 comments (clear)

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

    A Monolith

  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).

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    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  3. 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???

  4. 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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    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 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
  5. 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.

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    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. 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.
  6. 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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    1. Re:Too bad robots couldn't do what people could by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Most US returned rocks have never been studied

    2. 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.

  7. 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
  8. 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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  9. 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.

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    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.

  10. 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.