Roving Against The Dying Of The Light

Just weeks after Jade Rabbit landed on the moon, the Chinese rover is breaking down in a mysterious and poetic fashion:

What makes this story so tantalizing is not just the state’s intentional vagueness surrounding the “abnormality,” but the fact that the Jade Rabbit appears to have responded to the news by penning a heartrending farewell to humanity through its unofficial Weibo page (a Chinese version of Twitter). Further magnifying the drama was the fact that the national news agency picked up the tweets (weibs?) and published them in its official dispatches. …

“Although I should’ve gone to bed this morning, my masters discovered something abnormal with my mechanical control system,” Yutu was quoted as saying in Xinhua. “My masters are staying up all night working for a solution. I heard their eyes are looking more like my red rabbit eyes. Nevertheless, I’m aware that I might not survive this lunar night.”

Patrick George has more:

As [the rover] sits on its cold, rocky deathbed deep in space, it’s starting to get a little philosophical, according to the Xinhua story.

“Before departure, I studied the history of mankind’s lunar probes. About half of the past 130 explorations ended in success; the rest ended in failure,” noted the Jade Rabbit in its report. “This is space exploration; the danger comes with its beauty. I am but a tiny dot in the vast picture of mankind’s adventure in space.

“The sun has fallen, and the temperature is dropping so quickly… to tell you all a secret, I don’t feel that sad. I was just in my own adventure story – and like every hero, I encountered a small problem,” said the Rabbit. “Goodnight, Earth,” it said. “Goodnight, humanity.”

Fucking dark, man.

The problem appears to be “abrasive lunar dust.” Meanwhile, millions of miles away on Mars and a year and a half after its landing, NASA’s rover Curiosity continues to collect data across the Martian surface. America fuck yeah.