Now becoming the third nation to “soft-land” a spacecraft on the moon, China’s Chang’e 3 – (the first visitor from earth for over 35 years) – touched down safely on the surface today carrying with it “Jade Rabbit”, a small lunar rover that will soon begin exploration of the lunar surface.
“Jade Rabbit” is named for a pet belonging to “Chang’e” the goddess of the moon in Chinese legend. It is expected to transmit information back to earth for several months
This is a gigantic leap forward for China’s space exploration program, and a huge source of national pride.
Meanwhile, Indian scientists are racing to put together a cut-price Mars mission in just 15 months. The Indian Mars probe, dubbed “Mangalyaan,” successfully left earth orbit two weeks ago, in a critical maneuver that put it on course to reach the Red Planet next September.
Iran recently launched and safely returned to Earth its “second” live monkey, while not quite as flashy as “Jade Rabbit” – a significant step forward none the less.
I’ve been “muttering on” about this for some time now, and studying it for much longer as “future advances in space” trump my interests in financial markets. In particular I’ve been anxiously awaiting advances out of China, assuming long ago that when indeed they did finally get their “ducks in a line” – look out! As I’ve been expecting some incredible things.
These are very exciting times we live in, and with technology moving so quickly I’m extremely confident we’ll have our “minds’ blown” more than a couple of times in the not so distant future.
Let’s hope these “rovers” can manage to stay out of each others way, as we’d hate to see an “international traffic accident”.
Fun stuff on a lazy weekend.
It is interesting that you are able to post this news more than an hour ago while there is hardly any evidence of it on Google news. I guess the west doesn’t want the Chinese to get too much recognition. Go figure!
There’s so much going on right now / so much news etc…..news for “everything” and from “everywhere”.
I guess just depends where your interests lie.
Yes I heard that Iran’s second monkey has made it back to earth….Sad though that he is now listed on “America’s Most Wanted.”
I am not surprised about China – I think they will own the MSM over the next decade….. along with other but suspect this will have the lime-light….. ” They are buying when there is blood in the streets” For the first time ever I think North America will fall behind relative to such events & moves……
Dr. Kong – enjoy the time off – place looks magnificent – we are getting our taste of ” old-man winter here in TO – we will have snow on the ground for Christmas for the first time in a while or that I can remember…….
Cheers Schmed