China's Lunar Rover Has Mechanical Trouble

[sofa king]

59. Now, if you're looking for computer parts,

"Made in Japan" is the seal of approval for a good component.

Most of you lost a desktop PC--including virtually all Dells--somewhere during the Bush years, to a cheap shitty Chinese capacitor that leaked out or exploded. Those made with Japanese solid state capacitors were fine, but any manufacturer who saved a few cents per unit going with the cheap capacitor built machines destined to die within a few short years.

That having been said, the Chinese can close the books on this mission right now and it's still one of the most resounding success stories in the history of moon landings.

Unmanned lunar launches, historically, have only a moderate chance of actually making it to the moon. Only around five unmanned soft landings of this one's weight class have actually succeeded--at least two others failed during landing, including one failed Soviet attempt at virtually the same time that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were touching down on the moon (the Soviets were trying very hard to get a lunar sample back to earth before the Americans could, but Luna 15 disappeared shortly after beginning its landing sequence). Then the rover successfully deployed and worked, which was not a guarantee, and then the whole damned two-part system survived an entire lunar night.

The Chinese are not nearly as forthcoming as our own public space program is, but if there is one major failure here, it is that the rover was not immediately sent out with its ground-penetrating radar toward the lava tube system I think it was trying to discover. Other than that, it has been an amazing, resounding success for China, and if they'll share their science, for humans in general.