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- Title
China's 'Jade Rabbit' Rover on the Moon: A Wake-up Call.
- Authors
Uhalley Jr., Stephen
- Abstract
In late 2013, China became the third nation to soft land a spacecraft (Chang'e 3) on the Moon along with its robotic rover (Yutu or Jade Rabbit), making it clear that China will be playing a significant role in lunar exploration. This has implications for the United States, which has officially abandoned the Moon as a destination for its manned space program. Among voices that soon began speaking out on this matter was that of a former ranking official at the NASA Johnson Space Center, who warned that China's unmanned lunar rover is "a wakeup call." He advised against ceding the Moon to China. The controversy over the Moon as a destination is complex and political. Meanwhile, a vigorous new type of competition to land on the Moon has emerged: private entrepreneurial entities, encouraged by NASA and inspired by the Google Lunar X Prize. As China proceeds with its own plans, which include a 2017 sample mineral return mission and a 2018 unprecedented soft-landing on the dark far side of the Moon, it will continue bemusedly observing the confusion in the U.S. space program regarding the Moon, but with a keen eye on the foreign private sector as well.
- Subjects
CHANG'E 3 (Spacecraft); LUNAR exploration -- History; JADE Rabbit (Spacecraft); LUNAR surface vehicles; SHENZHOU (Spacecraft); CHINA-United States relations
- Publication
American Journal of Chinese Studies, 2016, Vol 23, p211
- ISSN
0742-5929
- Publication type
Article