"Apollo astronauts had to land just after dawn and leave before it got too hot, with things like their rover unable to operate around lunar noon," he said. Requiring a relay satellite for communications - due to operating on the far side of the moon, which never faces the Earth - is another potential factor in limiting Yutu 2's speed.Īnd shutting down around noon is no surprise, Stooke noted. The rover also carries science payloads, including panoramic cameras, a near-infrared imaging spectrometer and ground-penetrating radar, and frequently stops to collect data with this gear. Yutu 2 needs to avoid numerous craters that could trap the vehicle. This limits them to a maximum of about 8 to 10 meters per drive, and it all takes time." ![]() "They analyze the map and choose a path for the next drive. "After a drive, the rover takes images for a full stereoscopic panorama, and the team on the ground make a topographic map showing obstacles and slopes all around the rover," Stooke said. But China has been much more cautious and has adopted a style of driving like that used on Mars," Stooke told. Their maximum drive in a single shift was 3,000 meters. "Soviet engineers drove the Lunokhods 'live' with TV images showing the scene ahead. While Soviet Lunokhod moon rovers covered much greater distances - Lunokhod 2 traveled 23 miles (37 kilometers) across the lunar surface in 1973, for example - they did so under very different circumstances and with different science goals. Phil Stooke, professor emeritus and adjunct research professor in the Department of Geography and Institute for Earth and Space Exploration at the University of Western Ontario, has followed Yutu 2's activities closely. ![]() And the complexity of route planning and execution and meeting science goals leave less time for actual driving.
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