After a few weeks on the surface of the moon, China's lunar rover, the Jade Rabbit, was reported to have died on site. However, a clarification of its actual status was released stating that it is still sending signals indicating it is still alive.
The lunar rover arrived in the moon surface on Dec.15 but before celebrating its first month, China News Service (CNS) initially reported that it "could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected." The Yutu (Jade Rabbit in Chinese) had been a symbol of China's increasing global power and technological prowess.
China is third in the list of countries that have completed a lunar rover mission, trailing behind the United States and Soviet Union. It took the country four decades since the very first lunar soft landing to deploy their own, as an effort to forward Beijing's space program run by the military.
A "mechanical control abnormality" that occurred late January caused by "the complicated lunar surface environment" was the catalyst to the rover's malfunction, and according to the state-run news agency, it never regained momentum again.
Named after the Chinese mythology's goddess of the moon Chang'e's pet, Yutu was schedules to reside in the moon for three months to scour for natural resources. Weibo, a service similar to Twitter popular in China, filled to the brim with condolences from citizens.
The rover's deployment was widely acclaimed, as the state-run media declared it a technological success and an symbol of national pride. People have been raving about its accomplishments seen when the Jade Rabbit trended in famous Internet message boards, and the same enthusiasm was manifested in condolences after news broke in the morning that it was experiencing difficulties.
Come afternoon, CNS tweeted that "China moon rover Yutu still alive." The engineers tracking the lunar rover said they have detected its signal and seems to be back to normal.
