China’s lunar rover has developed a problem that may prevent it from further exploration of the surface of the moon, Xinhua, the state-run news service, said.

The rover, known as Jade Rabbit, was part of the unmanned Chang’e-3 mission launched Dec. 1. The spacecraft successfully landed after a journey of nearly two weeks, and the Jade Rabbit emerged a day later and rolled onto the moon’s surface. It displayed a Chinese flag and took a photo of the Chang’e lander.

The successful soft landing was the first in 37 years and made China only the third nation after the Soviet Union and the United States to carry out the maneuver.



In its 42 days on the moon, the Jade Rabbit, which is named for a character from Chinese mythology who accompanies the moon goddess Chang’e, traveled more than 100 meters, or 330 feet, on the moon’s surface, Xinhua said.

The problem with the rover appeared as it and the lander were preparing for the arriving lunar night, a period of about two weeks during which the probes go dormant because of a lack of sunlight to power their solar generators.

While the lander was able to go into sleep mode, the Jade Rabbit experienced a “mechanical control abnormality,” Xinhua reported.

The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said the problem was because of the “complicated lunar surface environment,” according to Xinhua. The ministry offered no further explanation for the rover’s difficulty.

Before the mechanical control problem, the rover had been able to use its radar, panoramic camera, particle X-ray device and infrared imaging equipment to gather data, Xinhua reported.

The rover had an anticipated life span of three months, but the harshness of the lunar environment means that malfunctions are frequent, said Sun Kwok, an astronomer at the University of Hong Kong who is not involved in the Chang’e mission.

“It’s obviously not an ideal situation, but it’s not something we’ve not encountered before,” Mr. Kwok said. “Some missions fail immediately and are a total write-off. I don’t think that’s true in this case. In a couple weeks they got a lot of data, so I won’t consider it a failure.”