China's Lunar Rover Has Mechanical Trouble

[bananas]

4. The solar panel is folded over the deck like a lid, insulating the interior ...

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/01251527-bad-news-for-yutu-rover.html

Bad news for Yutu rover
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla
2014/01/25 05:33 CST

The sun has just set on the Chang'e 3 landing site for the two-week long lunar night. As sunset approached, something seems to have gone wrong with the Yutu rover. In order to survive the lunar night, Yutu positions itself with one solar panel angled toward the direction of the rising sun. Then it folds down the mast that carries its color camera and its high-gain antenna into its body. Then the other solar panel is folded over the deck like a lid, insulating the interior and the mast, which are kept warm with a radioisotope heating unit. According to various reports online, it sounds like something in this sequence did not execute properly, although the reports are unspecific so I'm not sure yet what happened.

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More details are available from the unofficial Twitter account of the mission. Links take you to original Chinese, with Google translation below it.

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January 25, 15:25:

I'm sorry, so sorry we did not give up the ...... masters to treat it, I will not give up easily.Well, for everyone to see articles about my article, which I wrote before a master. But the master is very shy, embarrassed to tell you who he is (or may be afraid of everyone that he is not well written ......), entrusted to the king to publish a Nutshell. After reading, I think, a good horror master deconstruction of others like you, oh ......

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