Chinese lunar rover - serious problems

Just recently, the Chinese media reported that the Jade Rabbit, the Chinese Yunta lunar rover, had serious problems. At first, it was only said that problems arose because of the "complex surface topography of the moon." That is, it was unclear what could happen at all - the chassis “flew”, or the moon rover generally failed somewhere.

Now the situation has cleared up, Chinese experts reported that the rover has “problems with mechanical control of movement”. The problem arose in the sixth week of the moon rover on the surface of the moon.
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The problem itself is that one of the solar batteries of the Lunokhod did not develop properly, as a result of which this panel did not get into the heated compartment that maintains the temperature of the critical systems of the Lunokhod during the lunar night (information about the breakdown came from unofficial sources). Officially, it is only reported that the lunar rover has “problems with mechanical control of motion”.

It is worth recalling that the lunar rover (and the landing module) work only during the so-called lunar day, when solar radiation heats the surface of the moon (and the rover).

The duration of the lunar day is two weeks, after which the lunar night comes the same duration. At this time, the temperature drops to minus 180 degrees Celsius, and the lunar rover with the landing module goes into hibernation mode. Important lunar rover systems are heated at this time (up to minus 40 centigrade) by a radioisotope source.

If there is no pre-heating, the moon rover, or some important (critical) systems, can fail during a moonlit night. And right now the “night period” has arrived, and it is unclear whether the Chinese specialists have coped with the problem of an incorrectly folded solar panel. The lunar rover itself went into hibernation on January 25th, and the landing module on January 24th.

So, we can get some news only on February 8 or 9, after the onset of the lunar day, followed by an increase in the temperature of the lunar surface.

Via universetoday