A simple background image has retrospectively stolen the limelight at China’s exhibit for its recently deployed Yutu moon rover: It appeared to show an enormous mushroom cloud hovering over Eastern Europe, indicating a continent under nuclear attack.
The picture is described as having “a bit of paint here, a
bit of stock there, a bit of manipulation here,” by its
maker, James Oliver, aka 'n4u2k'. China appears to have utilized
the image of the earth seen from space as a backdrop at an
industry fair in Shanghai earlier this month which promoted the
rover’s expedition.
The gold-covered, moon-roving Yutu (‘Jade Rabbit’) craft was
displayed at the fair by the country’s National Space
Administration against the backdrop to apparently create the
impression of the rover already being stationed on the earth’s
satellite.
However, after close inspection, it has since prompted the
realization that while the rover is safely space borne, thousands
of people on the ground are being blasted into oblivion.
The rover, which weighs 140 kilograms, or just over 300 pounds,
is to spend the next three months roaming the surface of the moon
in a region known as the Bay of Rainbows.
The Chang'e-3 probe, carrying Yutu, was launched on December 2,
and landed on Saturday evening, local time. The day marked the
first time a nation has successfully carried out a moon landing
in over three decades and the first time that China has sent a
spacecraft to the surface of an extra-terrestrial body.
Yutu is undertaking a project in which it will dig and survey
both the moon’s geological structure and surface substances, as
well as look for natural resources.
The spokesman said that the next missions will involve delivery
of soil samples from the Moon’s surface. The Chang'e-4 mission
will be an intermediate one, set to test technological ideas for
at least two subsequent sample collecting missions, the first one
to land on the moon around 2017.