Interestingly, China’s lunar rover Yutu-2 is on an extensive lunar coverage mission and has been probing the same over three years now. Science Robotics publishes about the revelations and progress of Yutu- 2 so far regarding Moon’s far side.
Yutu-2 is a pioneer rover in landing on Moon’s far side in January 2019 under change e-4 mission. So far, the rover has been able to cover 3,300 feet aiming to probe the structure of the basalt rocks on Moon’s far side. It compares these basalt rocks against the rocks present on the near side of the Moon.
Discoveries of Yutu2
The new paper from Science Robotics lays down the facts about the locomotive capabilities of Yutu-2 and its astronomical work in the last two years. It is pretty fascinating to note that two unique findings relate to each other. The first is that the Moon’s far side soil is stickier than the soil at the near side of the Moon, and the second is that the clods of Moon’s far side soil stick to Yutu-2’s wheels.
Further, the rover discovers numerous small craters; of 88 craters that the journal talks about, 57 are less than 10 meters (32.8 feet). These small craters are secondary craters among the more prominent Zhinyu Crater besides which rover arrives.
The report also suggests the number of craters on the Moon’s far side is higher than the near side due to the many volcanic activities on the near side of the Moon. The future insights from Yutu-2 will be under the study by Chang’e-5 mission, which happens to be the successor Chang’e-4 mission.