Chang’e 3 – Astronomy Now

China’s Yutu rover dies on the Moon

5 August 2016 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rover sent to the Moon in 2013 has stopped operating, officials announced this week, ending a groundbreaking 31-month mission that made discoveries in lunar geology and catapulted China’s space programme to new heights.

Chinese lunar rover’s rock analysis reveals a more diverse Moon

23 December 2015 Astronomy Now

China’s Yutu rover finds volcanic rocks unlike those returned by earlier missions, offering tantalising clues to the period of lunar volcanism that suggest the Moon was never a fully homogenised body like the Earth. The basalts the rover examined are a new type, chemically different from those retrieved by the Apollo and Luna missions 40 years ago.

China aims for landing on Moon’s far side by 2020

22 September 2015 Stephen Clark

A rover and landing platform developed as a backup for China’s Chang’e 3 Moon mission will be repurposed to attempt the first touchdown on the lunar far side by the end of the decade, Chinese officials said.