We last went to the moon in 1972, except for that rover China sent two years ago… It's
still up there. (look up) Right now.
moonpies Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 all landed
on our moon. Astronauts collected and returned 2,200 separate samples totalling 382 kilograms
(842 lbs). Three Soviet Luna missions also returned about 300 grams (¾ lb) of lunar
material too. They get a participation award. While it may sound like it, that's not a lot
of moon to study.
That last Soviet was back in 1976. So, when China landed on the moon in 2013, it should
have been pretty huge news! The moon had been abandoned for almost 40 years. China's Chang'e
3 launched in 2013, making China the third country to land a wheeled vehicle on the moon's
surface, and the first in the 21st century. The Chang’E-3 craft has a nuclear-powered
lander and a small rover named Yutu, or "jade rabbit." Yutu's complement is classified by
China, but we know it has cameras, lunar-penetrating radar which can look 400 meters below the
surface, and two spectrometers for analyzing the lunar rocks and soil (called regolith).
I know what you're thinking, 'MERCIA DID IT FIRST CHAANA. You know what, you're right.
We landed humans there first. And the U.S.S.R. landed a rover too, but there's SO MUCH MORE
to learn about the Moon. For example, Apollo only dug 3 meters into the lunar surface,
that's not a lot. But, in March of 2015, Chinese researchers published a paper in the journal
Science announcing that Yutu’s lunar-penetrating radar had found NINE subsurface layers! This
suggests that geological activity had occurred on the moon since the Imbrian period which
ended 3.2 billion years ago. Lunar geologists believe "eruptions filled the [basin where
Yutu is sitting] at least five times." Scientists didn't think the moon had been active at all
in that period, so now more research is needed. For example, some scientists think the youngest
volcanic flows may be only a billion years old, others think maybe 100 million, but,
really, they have no idea, because they've never gotten to test them up close!
Another study published in December 2015's Nature Communication used data from Yutu's
instruments and announced the discovery of a whole new type of moon rock! The basalt
rocks that Yutu is exploring with her spectrometers are completely different from samples brought
back by the Apollo and Luna missions. Lunar geologists think: 1. this means there was
explosive activity in the region. Which counters other theories. 2. that we still know almost
nothing about the moon.
As NASA put it, exploring the moon creates opportunities for international cooperation
and economic expansion; plus it pushes the boundaries of our civilization. Yutu is the
latest in a long line of exploration of our solar system, and though mechanical problems
rendered it immobile, and crippled, the Chinese rover broke the record for the longest-operating
mission on
the moon.