China's Chang'e-4 probe switches to dormant mode
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E-mail Xinhua, September 24, 2020
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have been switched to dormant mode for the lunar night after working stably for a 22nd lunar day, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The lander was switched to dormant mode at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday (Beijing Time) as scheduled, and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), at 11:18 p.m. on Wednesday, said the center on its official social media platform accounts.
A lunar day is equal to 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe, switching to dormant mode during the lunar night due to the lack of solar power, has survived 630 Earth days on the far side of the moon as of Thursday, and the rover has traveled 547.17 meters.
During the 22nd lunar day, Yutu-2 explored an impact crater about 1.3 km northwest of the landing site.
The Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
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