Lander and rover of China’s lunar probe switched to dormant mode: report

The lander and the rover of China's Change-4 lunar probe have been switched to the dormant mode for the lunar night due to lack of solar power, a media report said on Saturday.

China's Change-4 lunar rover scripted history on January 3, 2019, when it made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon and sent back close-up images of the previously unexplored region, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The lander and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), were switched to dormant mode on Friday as scheduled, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Center of the China National Space Administration.

"The Change-4 probe, which was switched to dormant mode during the lunar night due to the lack of solar power, had been on the far side of the moon for 778 Earth days as of Saturday, and the rover has travelled 652.62 meters. A lunar day and night each equal 14 days on Earth," the report said.

The rover is in good condition, and all scientific payloads are working normally, it said.

The Change-4 probe, launched on December 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on January 3, 2019.

The rover Yutu-2 has far exceeded its three-month design lifespan, becoming the longest-working lunar rover on the moon, the report said.