No moon photo may ever beat for punchy composition the Earthrise that Apollo astronaut Michael Collins snapped 44 and a half years ago from lunar orbit. [Correction: First and most famous Earthrise was by astronaut Wm. Anders on Apollo 8. Collins took another batch during Apollo 11, and thank you alert readers as seen in comments for telling us/ cp]. But China's space agency got a contender in the image that its Chang'e-5 lander returned to Earth as its fragile piggy-backer the Yutu (aka Jade Rabbit) rover trundled off toward a gray and bleak horizon, wheel tracks starkly shadowed behind.
That mission, by what was still a developing nation back when NASA ruled the space game with only a struggling Soviet program to concern itself with, may mark an inflection point in space exploration. India is making similar spacefaring noises. The US private sector is rolling up its sleeves – so far, mostly a lot of tall talk to be sure. Europe is already in the game. Japan is, sort of, too. NASA is stuck in neutral but will surely get itself in gear again. Space travel, space industry, and space exploration generally are gaining depth fast.
The pic drew me like a little leaguer to the snack box after the game is done and the coach has finished his yak yak yak. It called to me for two reasons.
First is simply that we've not posted on China's mission. Time to do something.
Second (and quite off-topic), remember The Road, the novel that Cormac McCarthy published in 2007 to Pulitzer acclaim? The movie got great reviews as well. So I've heard. It's a rivetingly bleak post-apocalyptic tale of love and despair, a father and his boy trekking across a gray landscape that is utterly lifeless save cruel marauders seeking flesh – any flesh. McCarthy had his questing pair doggedly pushing a spindly shopping cart, piled with their meagerly scavenged survival goods, through the endless dust of a wrecked world toward a vague prophetic hope on the distant coast. I easily remember it. I read it today – son Oliver gave me the book for Christmas. It is among his all time favorites. With the book's imagery fresh on my mind, seeing China's rover making its way over a rocky lava plain for a black horizon is powerful, moving, and as ambiguous as McCarthy's dark tale.
The pic came to eye via:
- Universe Today – Ken Kremer: Yutu Moon Rover Sets Sail for Breathtaking New Adventures ; Yutu, after circling its mother ship for awhile, now "will depart the Chang'e-3 landing zone forever and begin its own lunar trek that's expected to last at least 3 months," he writes. Inserting that technically unnecessary 'forever' in the sentence is brilliant. Ken is a pro at space news. The story is well laced with links, including to Kremer's several extensive, previous dispatches on the mission.
The lander touched down earlier this month. Before going, here are a few more recent stories on China's remarkably successful first shot at soft landing on the moon's surface and its ramifications. All in all, the press reaction to the mission has been sparse except within China itself.
- Space.com – Leonard David: China Targets Moon Sample-Return Mission in 2017;
- Telegraph (UK) Natasha Clark: China's Moon Landing : the space race with India ; As seen via overlapping, bulleted timeline.
- Guardian – Ian Sample: China's Jade Rabbit rover makes crucial tracks in space and on Earth ; Good job explaining that this does not mark a new space race. But it is a space activity expansion. And, he adds on a tangential and more worrying kind of competition, "Meanwhile, regional competition between China and India could fuel the militarisation of space, with the unchecked development of anti-satellite weapons." Interesting is the suggestion that if the US does push on to Mars or asteroids, it may leave other nations so far behind they won't even collaborate in such efforts – but focus on an international (but not US) effort to cooperatively build an inhabited moon base. The result could be loss of US leadership in space exploration near Earth. Provocative idea, hard to gauge its heft.
- Aviation Week – Bradley Perrett, Frank Morring, Jr.: China Looks To 2017 Sample-Return Moon Mission ; Long enough to take notes off for any reporter planning to tackle the topic. Such as, that even the current mission seems to have enough payload capacity to handle a return vehicle's weight. Also that, US laws governing export of sensitive technologies forbid any substantial cooperation by NASA with the China National Space Administration.
- Politico magazine – John M. Logsdon: Lost in Space. China just landed on the moon. Is the United States losing its edge? Logsdon, founder of Washington University's Space Policy Institute, is more often the one quoted in space stories, not the author. The story reveals that the headline has a trick question. Its answer is yes, perhaps, but China is not the prime reason. Anyway, he writes, NASA's Mars rover program is leagues beyond anything China can do. Yet. The story's hook is China's landing. Its meat is the faltering of purpose and budget within still mighty NASA.
- National Geographic – Sarah Fecht: Six Reasons NASA Should Build a research Base on hte Moon ; The reasons are from longtime NASA planetary science whiz Chris McKay. It you wish to pay to read them first hand, his article is in the December issue of New Space magazine. Even second hand in Fecht's summary this serves as an expansion on the notion, in Ian Sample's Guardian piece a few bullets previous, that if the US races ahead while not holding ground already covered it may wind up the loser in the end.
Grist for the Mill: China National Space Administration press release ;
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