Yutu-2 travels almost 300 meters on ninth lunar day
According to a story today in official Chinese state-run media, Yutu-2 traveled another 284.99 meters during its ninth lunar day on the surface of the Moon, and has now been placed in hibernation in order to survive the long lunar night.
The story provides no further information, including saying nothing about the strange and unusual material the rover supposedly spotted during this time period.
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According to a story today in official Chinese state-run media, Yutu-2 traveled another 284.99 meters during its ninth lunar day on the surface of the Moon, and has now been placed in hibernation in order to survive the long lunar night.
The story provides no further information, including saying nothing about the strange and unusual material the rover supposedly spotted during this time period.
I must unfortunately ask you for your financial support because I do not depend on ads and rely entirely on the generosity of readers to keep Behind the Black running. You can either make a one time donation for whatever amount you wish, or you sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $2 to $15 through Paypal or $3 to $50 through Patreon.
Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Or you can donate by using Zelle through your bank. You will need to give my name and email address (found at the bottom of the "About" page). The best part of this electronic option is that no fees will be deducted! What you donate will be what I receive.
That comes to three meters an hour. I wonder why it is so slow.
For the same reason Curiosity is, I suppose – limited or no ability to conduct autonomous driving combined with considerable caution on the part of its handlers. Zipping around could tip it over or put it into some small ground declivity not easily spotted if moving faster. The latter sort of mishap could trap it.
It could be the gearing is involved. For a given motor (and the size is limited by everything else the rover needs, you want more instruments, maybe motor and battery size need to go down), the lower the gearing, the greater the torque, but the lower the speed. You’re not trying to set speed records here and the more torque you have, the steeper the slope you can ascend and, perhaps, the easier to get you out of awkward situations.
Hmm. Because our robotic rovers do not travel so fast, maybe we would get more exploration for our buck if we had humans doing the exploration. They move much faster, make their own decisions on the spot, but they cost a bit more to get there and back again.