China offered a rare glimpse into its secretive space program yesterday, displaying a model of a lunar rover that will explore the moon’s surface in an upcoming mission.
Beijing has ambitious space goals, including plans to send its first probe to land on the moon by the end of this year, state media reported in August.
The gold-colored rover model, with six wheels and wing-like solar panels, attracted admiring crowds at the opening of the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai.
Photo: AFP
The rover’s designer, the Shanghai Aerospace Systems Engineering Research Institute, said the real thing would be lifted aloft by a Long March 3B rocket scheduled to be launched early next month.
Beijing sees its military-run space program as a marker of its rising global stature and growing technological might, as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
The showcasing of the rover came on the same day that India launched its first rover mission to Mars, country to reach the Red Planet.
The Shanghai-based institute, a unit of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which is linked to the Chinese military, claims it has made several technological breakthroughs with the lunar rover.
Advances include its “autonomous” navigation system and the way the rover’s wheels are able to grip the powdery surface of the moon, according to material provided by the institute.
It can climb inclines of up to 30o and travel up to 200m per hour, it said.
“It’s incredible to think that a little machine like this will actually go to the moon soon,” said Lu Hui, who was among the crowd looking at the model rover.
“I think it’s cute, kind of like WALL-E,” she said, referring to the animated robot in the 2008 Pixar film of the same name.
Xinhua news agency is hosting an online poll to select the rover’s name, with “Seeking Dream” in the lead on more than 560,000 votes.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not