Lights out for China’s Chang’e 5 moon lander as day becomes lunar night
- The rest of the spacecraft is returning to Earth with rock samples but the lander is thought to have met its designed end
- The device was used as a launch pad for the ascent vehicle after completing its assigned tasks
The lander, which touched down softly on the Oceanus Procellarum, or “Ocean of Storms”, on December 1 and collected rocks with a drill and robotic arm, has stopped working since the ascent vehicle took off on December 3.
Amateur radio trackers have also not detected any signals from it since then, space news website Space.com reported.
The China National Space Administration has offered no update on the lander but its loss was expected from the start. Unlike its long-lived predecessors, the Chang’e 5 lander was originally designed to only endure one lunar day – about the same time as 14 days on Earth, and was assigned not other tasks other than the ones it accomplished.
The lander was apparently damaged when it was used as a launch pad for the mission’s ascent vehicle, which sprang up from the lander and then ignited its powerful engine. The lander even captured the ascent vehicle’s take-off with a camera, and sent the data back to Earth.
