Yutu (rover)

Yutu, named for the Chinese jade rabbit, is the solar-powered lunar rover carried to the Moon by China's Chang'e 3 lander, the country's first lunar landing project. A Long March 3B launched the mission from Xichang in December 2013 and the lander came down on the Sinus Iridum basaltic lava plain, a northwestern extension of Mare Imbrium, where it deployed the rover of about 120 kilograms. Yutu carried a payload of about 20 kilograms: panoramic cameras for live video, an infrared spectrometer, an alpha particle and X-ray spectrometer, and a ground penetrating radar to probe the soil and the structure of the crust beneath it. It was inactive during the lunar night, kept warm by a radioactive heater unit. After its first 14-day night on the Moon it suffered a mechanical control abnormality and could no longer move, yet it kept working from a stationary position for over two years and contributed to the mission's science goals. Its successor Yutu-2 flew on Chang'e 4.