Preface
Near midnight on January 6, 2022, the Yutu-2 lunar rover traveled 1,003.9 meters.
At the end of the 20th century, the three lunar rovers of the American Apollo spacecraft traveled between 20 and 30 kilometers and traveled at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour (that is, 20 kilometers).
Between the two, one is 1,000 meters in three years, and the other is 20,000 meters per hour, the speed difference is too large, like a snail and a cheetah.
What is the reason behind this, is it that our technology is far behind the United States?
Skills are not as good as others?
China's Yutu-2 is an unmanned lunar rover that needs to carry scientific exploration instruments to patrol the lunar surface and transmit the exploration data back to Earth, which is equivalent to a robot that can move around the moon and complete the exploration mission.
The Apollo lunar rover in the United States is a pure means of transportation on the moon, and it has no other functions at all, and the work requires the astronauts who drive it to the place to get off the car and work in person.
On the one hand, I am looking for a job by myself, and on the other hand, I am only driven by people and do nothing else, and the mileage I drive is naturally not small.
But the gap is still too big, and this alone can only explain why there is a difference in speed, but it can't explain why there is so much difference in speed.
This requires us to understand the difference in the nature of their work.
Source: "How is the "Jade Rabbit" different from its foreign counterparts The future lunar rover may be like this" - Science and Technology Daily 2019-3-2
There is nothing to explain about the American lunar rover, the whole picture is that the American astronauts are driving the lunar rover at a high speed, and then find a good place to manually collect lunar soil and bring it back.
The nature of the work of Yutu-2 is completely different from that of the American lunar rover.
The "little rabbit" of Jade Rabbit No. 2 is very hardworking and does more than one job.
Its mission is to study the topography of the moon, its mineral composition, the shallow structure of the lunar surface, etc., so it is necessary to.
Every step you take is then filmed and analyzed in real time, and you have to show it to the ground staff, and the way you walk is the same as that of an AI robot, every step needs to be recognized, and you can only move on to the next step after recognition.
While there are many tasks, it also needs to be carefully analyzed, and it relies on independent analysis to decide every step of its own, which causes the speed of Yutu 2 to go very slowly.
Source: "Yutu-2" Lunar Rover Mileage Exceeds 1000 Meters" - WeChat official account "China Lunar Exploration Project" 2022-1-7
Therefore, it is absurd to compare the speed of the two lunar rovers, because the two sides are not at odds in terms of design and function.
Yu Yu No. 2
As we mentioned earlier, the speed of Yutu-2 and the American lunar rover is simply comparable to that of a snail and a cheetah.
In fact, there is a bit of a difference in size between the two.
The Apollo is 3 meters long and weighs about 210 kilograms.
The Yutu 2 is 1.5 meters long, 1 meter wide and 1.1 meters high, and weighs only about 140 kilograms.
This smaller lunar rover has set many world records.
At present, Yutu-2 is the longest-running lunar rover on the lunar surface, with a total of 1,953 days since this day (May 7, 2024), far surpassing the previous world record holder: the Soviet "Lunar Rover 1", which has been on the moon for a total of 321 days.
Not only that, Yutu No. 2 also won many world "firsts".
Source: "Jade Rabbit No. 2" has broken the record! Become the lunar rover that has worked on the moon for the longest time"——CCTV 2019-12-14
For the first time, it has realized the relay TT&C communication between the far side of the Moon and the Earth, the first time to realize the global layout of deep space network, the first time to realize the continuous measurement of lunar surface temperature, and the first time to carry out international cooperation payload and joint exploration.
These new world records show that Yutu-2 has a special design to enable more advanced lunar exploration work.
So what are the special designs of Jade Rabbit No. 2?
Source: "Jade Rabbit No. 2 has been "living" on the back of the moon for a year, and the precious picture is exposed! ——Yangtze Evening News 2020-1-3
Yutu No. 2 adopts the mobile configuration of 6-wheel main and auxiliary rocker suspension, which can be driven independently by 6 wheels and steered by 4 wheels, and has the ability to climb a 20-degree slope and cross 20 cm high obstacles, and the fastest moving speed is 200 meters per hour.
In response to the needs of the mission, the staff also equipped it with advanced devices such as a lunar radar, a panoramic camera, a neutral atom detector, and an infrared imaging spectrometer.
At the same time, Yutu-2 can sleep autonomously according to light conditions.
After autonomous sleep, Yutu-2 can also wake up autonomously, and then it can also be autonomously set to enter a safe and stable working state.
Yutu-2 is also the first lunar rover to conduct roving exploration on the far side of the moon.
Therefore, in view of the complex terrain conditions faced by the mission, the new needs of relay communication, and the actual needs of scientific targets, Yutu-2 also has special designs in energy supply, scientific exploration, and TT&C communication.
Therefore, the Yutu No. 2, which was originally designed to have a life span of only 3 months, can continue to work after almost 2,000 days.
So what did this "little rabbit" go through when he worked on the far side of the moon?
Source: "Yutu-2 found translucent "glass balls" on the moon, who left them? ——Popular Science China 2022-3-11
As it traveled, it saw a "palace" building in the distance, and when it got closer, a stone that looked like a rabbit appeared in front of it.
In addition, Yutu-2 also discovered a mysterious "transparent glass ball" on the far side of the moon.
The researchers found that many of the impact events near the landing site may have formed such glass spheres, which may be common material on lunar soil in the lunar highlands.
Future Plans
In order to let the "little rabbit" have a companion soon, in 2023, the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center reported the progress of the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project.
With the steady progress of the fourth phase of the mainland's lunar exploration project, Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7, and Chang'e-8 are all undergoing relevant research and development and preparations.
In January 2023, the collaborative demonstration and design of the Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions of the lunar exploration project were carried out in the collaborative design and simulation hall of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory.
On May 3, 2024, the Chang'e-6 mission was successfully launched and is expected to bring back samples from the far side of the moon.
Source: "Chang'e-6 went to the far side of the moon for the first time to "dig in the soil", what is the difficulty? ——China News Weekly 2024-5-6
Chang'e-7 is also in preparation, and its scale is slightly larger than that of Yutu-2, with different loads and no major differences in structure.
Intelligence has made more progress in this aspect, which originally needed some help from the ground, and now its path planning is more autonomous.
This more advanced "junior" will be launched around 2026 and land at the south pole of the moon to carry out resource exploration at the south pole of the moon.
The moon will no longer be limited to Yutu-2.
epilogue
Once we were poor and white, watching the United States and the Soviet Union land on the moon one after another.
Later, we forged ahead, Shenzhou, Tianzhou, Chang'e, Yutu, Beidou, Mozi, Wukong, Tiangong, Firefly, Dongfanghong, Wentian...... Behind these names are the painstaking efforts of countless scientific researchers and the yearning of generations of Chinese for the unknown deep blue field.
Now that we're setting records and making big plans on the far side of the moon, we should be clear that if a country isn't stable and strong enough, it won't be able to make it to the skies.
Therefore, we should be grateful not only to scientific researchers and staff, but also to the party that has always led the Chinese people forward.
I would like to thank the mainland's leading body for its contribution to China, and wish China a smooth road ahead.