But now, just 13 years later, from the chuckleheads at SPACE.com comes China's amazing manless moon rover!
http://www.space.com/23787-china-moon-r ... aunch.html
I don't really know what to say about these graphics, folks, except — did China acquire an expensive first edition Playstation One to make this simulation software?
No word on whether this is supposed to be a photograph or another simulation, of slightly better quality than Super Mario 64.
Love the prop rock. How long did an intern spend on the subsampling lighting software, I wonder?
From the article:
Yes, the Jade Rabbit is brand new technology. A rover coming out of a lunar skirt covered in tin foil. We haven't seen that gag before.China's Yutu rover is a six-wheel robot that weighs nearly 310 lbs (140 kilograms) and is equipped with two solar panels for power. A global online poll was used to come up with suggested names for the robot. In the final round of voting, about 650,000 people out of more than 3.4 million chose Youtube Yutu [...] "More than 80 percent of the technology adopted in the mission is new, and with new technology and products carrying out new tasks, there are certainly great risks," said Li, as reported in China Daily. "It could be a trying process for the rover to move down the lander," he said.
If you want to see something really cute, check out http://english.cntv.cn/special/lunarmission/index.shtml , where the Chinese "Space Dream" (as they, themselves, call it!) is explained in broken English, exciting fonts and hilarious imagery. I love this one:
Hahahaha! Can I get one for Christmas? You can pick it up at Ikea, right?
Woops, I wasn't paying attention. My bad. They've already had two successful Chang'e missions back in '07 and '10 while nobody was looking. I guess that makes them just a little more exclusive. You'll have to pick up the parts at Home Depot instead. (Don't worry, it's all really made in China!)