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50 Lunar geology The China National Space Administration has successfully deployed its Yutu-2 rover to the far side of the Moon, where it has discovered mantle rocks indicative of an impact having breached the Moon’s crust billions of years ago. The Yutu-2 weighs about 140 kg, measures roughly 1.5 x 1 x 1 m, and was carried to the Moon’s surface by the 1200 kg Chang’e-4 lander. Both are equipped with radioisotope-based heaters for thermal management of subsystems during the lunar nights, and solar panels for generating electrical power during the day. The two unmanned vehicles landed inside the 180 km-wide Von Karman crater, which sits within the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin. As direct data links between the Earth and the Moon’s far side are currently impossible, the Queqiao relay satellite was deployed in a halo orbit around the L2 Lagrangian point of the Moon relative to the Earth, to serve as a continuous comms relay between Earth and the Chang’e-4. Through this link, initial telemetry received from the Yutu-2’s visible and near-infrared spectrometer sensor suggests that the rocks contain low- calcium (ortho)pyroxene and olivine, minerals that are found in the mantle rather than the crust. A ground- penetrating radar designed for use on the Moon was also integrated as part of the vehicle’s survey sensor suite. The rover has a panoramic camera on its mast as well, which has a spectral range of 420-700 nm, for acquiring 3D images by binocular stereo vision. It also carries an energetic neutral atom analyser from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, which was integrated to study how the solar wind interacts with the lunar surface, potentially to help investigate the process behind how lunar water is formed. Lunar exploration Progress is continuing on the partially autonomous Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway (LOP-G), with Maxar Technologies having been contracted to produce and demonstrate the power, propulsion and comms section of the system. The contract was awarded by NASA, which leads the project in collaboration with international development partners including the ESA, Russia’s Roscosmos, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency. The technologies to be developed by Maxar will include a 50 kW solar-electric propulsion system, which will be about three times more powerful than typical systems. It is much more energy-efficient than traditional chemical power systems, so it will use far less propellant than in NASA’s past lunar operations. Also, the comms system will provide an automatic relay between the Moon and the Earth’s South Pole. The Gateway is designed to provide habitation and laboratory space for research astronauts to use between experiments and explorations on the lunar surface, with stays lasting for about three months. Being just less than a third of the size of the ISS, its modules will include a robotic arm for berthing and inspecting vehicles, and installing scientific October/November 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology Insight | Unmanned space vehicles The Chinese National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 lander deployed a six-wheeled Yutu-2 rover on the far side of the Moon, and it is expected to be in operation for several years (Courtesy of the CNSA)