Chinese robotic telescope on the moon lasts longer than expected

The first robotic telescope on the moon lasts longer than expected. The Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope has survived the first eighteen months on the lunar landscape hostile to telescopes and is still functioning properly.

The moon’s environment, full of charged particles and eroding lunar dust that can damage equipment and destroy electronics, kept expectations for the telescope low. The telescope sits on the Chang’e 3 lunar lander. The cart that was brought along to collect soil samples, the Yutu rover or ‘jade rabbit’, stopped functioning in March this year.

To avoid damage, the Chinese arranged for the telescope to retreat to the Chang’e 3 between sunrise and sunset on the moon. Scientists published a paper this week on the activity during the telescope’s first 18 months of operation. In that time, the telescope collected 2,000 hours of data and tracked 40 stars.

The robotic telescope on the lander is a six-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and captures ultraviolet light around galaxies, stars, quasars and other galactic phenomena visible only in the ultraviolet spectrum from 245 to 340nm. Due to the thin atmosphere and slow rotation of the moon, extremely long, uninterrupted observations of celestial bodies can be made.