China’s Lunar Lander Sends Back Amazing New Photos of Our Moon

We’ve become used to peering at blurry images of the Moon’s surface over the past 50 years, but the latest trove of photos released by the Chinese space agency include some of the clearest ever taken. The data from the lander has finally been made public, so we can see all of the dazzling new photos of the Moon’s surface. There are also images of Yutu and the lander as well as images of the moon’s rocky and dusty surface.

China joined the ranks of United States and Russian Federation when it successfully accomplished a soft-landing on the Moon on December 2013. That mission is slated to send a lander and rover to the far side of the Moon, as early as 2018, and before 2020. But the shots haven’t enjoyed much publicity in Western media until now, in part because China typically releases images by 12 to 18 months after receiving them, and uses an unwieldy website written only in Chinese to showcase them. The historical event of China’s space travel was 37 years in the making, following the landing of Russia’s Luna 24 probe in 1976.

Fortunately, Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society went through the process and hosted the images on the society’s website. Unfortunately, due to mechanical issues, Yutu is no longer able to move around the surface.

The Chang’e 3 was named after a goddess of Moon in Chinese mythology was a follow-up mission to both Chang’e 1 and 2 which were both orbiters. By 2015, it was declared non-operational.

“China is trying to reach the top tier and show that they’re a major space power”, Kevin Pollpeter, a Defense Group, Inc. analyst affiliated with the University of California San Diego told National Geographic.