Rise and shine; China's Jade Rabbit is awake and back in action. After its planned dormancy during the lunar night, the lunar rover has now continued its mission across the moon's surface, and will hopefully reveal more information as it continues its trek.
The Jade Rabbit has had a brilliant marketing campaign. The machine has been anthropomorphized through the use of a blog, "speaking" in the first person to the public.
"Masters are working round the clock," the blog said, according to the LA Times. "If this journey is to be suspended ahead of schedule, I am not fearful. Whether I can be fixed or not, I believe I have left my masters much valuable information and experience."
In January, the Jade Rabbit shut down for two weeks during the lunar night. This particular shut down, while scheduled, was worrying to scientists. The rover had experienced mechanical abnormalities just before the dormancy, and so the researchers weren't sure whether the rover would "wake up" again.
Now, it seems like the Jade Rabbit is wide awake and ready for business. On Thursday morning, the rover was reactivated, and now scientists are busy assessing whether or not the Jade Rabbit can continue with its mission.
"Hi, is anyone there?" the rabbit asked in its first tweet after the two-week dormancy, according to BBC News.
The rover is actually the first to make a soft landing on the lunar surface in nearly four decades. Since its arrival, the Jade Rabbit has surveyed the lunar surface and has conducted experiments by analyzing the lunar soil. Currently, China hopes that the Jade Rabbit survives at least three months on the moon, sending back critical data to scientists on Earth.
