China planning to send version of ill-fated Jade Rabbit moon rover to Mars
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The man who designed China's Jade Rabbit moon rover hopes a more advanced version of his creation will be sent to Mars, state media reported, underscoring Beijing's increasingly ambitious space programme.
Jia Yang also told the official Xinhua news agency of his despair when the lunar rover lost contact with Earth six weeks after it was deployed on the moon's surface.
He led the team that designed the Jade Rabbit, named Yutu in Chinese after the pet of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology.
The Yutu moon rover on the lunar surface: It has been revealed the rover's designer hopes an improved version will be sent to Mars.
WILL CHINA MINE THE MOON?
The potential to extract the moon's resources has been touted as a key reason behind Beijing's space programme.
The moon is believed to hold uranium, titanium, and other mineral resources, as well as offering the possibility of solar power generation.
'China wants to go to the moon for geostrategic reasons and domestic legitimacy,' said China space expert Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
'With the U.S. exploration moribund at best, that opens a window for China to be perceived as the global technology leader - though the U.S. still has more, and more advanced, assets in space.
'The landing was a key step forward in Beijing's ambitious military-run space programme, which include plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually sending a human to the moon.
'I hope before my retirement, the Chinese people can begin exploring Mars,' Jia said in an interview released late Thursday.
'I hope we can send a rover better than Yutu to Mars.'
The Jade Rabbit suffered a 'mechanical control abnormality' on January 25 and lost contact with Earth, leading scientists to worry that it might not survive a bitterly cold 14-day lunar night.
'It's like that a monster is going to swallow you, while your mind is very clear, but you cannot move,' Jia said of his feelings at the time.
'We've done everything we can do. There is nothing else. Maybe it's time to say goodbye.'
But space officials reestablished contact with Yutu in February, to the relief of domestic media and space enthusiasts.
China has declared the mission a "complete success", but mechanical problems have continued to plague Yutu and the most recent reports in May said the rover was gradually becoming "weakened".
China's Lunar mission: The launch in December 2013 was the third such soft-landing in history, and the first of its kind since a Soviet mission nearly four decades ago.
Beijing sees the space programme as a symbol of China's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-poor nation.
The landing—the third such soft-landing in history, and the first of its kind since a Soviet mission nearly four decades ago—was a huge source of pride in China, where millions across the country charted the rover's accomplishments.
China's military-run space programme has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.
A chief scientist told state media in 2012 that China planned to collect samples from the surface of Mars by 2030.
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