The lander, with its solar panels and robotic arm, can be identified in the early morning sunlight alongside the rover's ascent in a photo released by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) of the rover's tracks. . This.
The mini-robot is much smaller than its predecessor — the Yutu-1 and Yutu-2 each weigh the equivalent of two adults — but boasts “advanced autonomous capabilities and highly integrated, lightweight hardware that is the team's artificial Evidence of achievements in intelligence”. , the report said.
If the rover is autonomous and making choices based on input data from cameras, it would be the first use of AI on a lunar rover, said Quentin Parker, an astrophysicist at the University of Hong Kong.
“But other systems on the various Chang'e spacecraft, as well as recent lunar probes developed by countries other than China, may have used AI,” he said.
Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell commented that the term AI was “rather meaningless” in the context of the Chang'e-6 images.
“But it shows the capabilities of the CAST software team and the ability to program complex activities into a very small spacecraft,” he said.
According to the newspaper report, the mini-rover was primarily tasked with taking selfies and validating autonomous intelligent technology, which are critical to the future of China's deep space exploration.
China is developing larger, more complex lunar probes for its Chang'e-7 and 8 missions, with the intention of building a primary lunar base by 2028.
The country aims to expand the base into a full-size International Lunar Research Station for long-term scientific exploration and resource utilization at the Moon's south pole in collaboration with international partners.
China Space Daily did not say how many selfies the mini rover took, and it is not yet clear whether the vehicle lived to photograph or film the lift-off of the Ascent vehicle with samples collected on board.
The rover was not equipped with thermal control devices and would have to cope with the extremely high temperatures of the lunar surface.
The 53-day Chang'e-6 mission is the first to retrieve rocks from the Moon, which are constantly moving away from us because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. All previous samples – collected by robotic or crewed missions from the US, the Soviet Union and China – are close to this.
Chang'e-6 took off from the Wenchang Spaceport on South China's Hainan Island on May 3 and is expected to land in the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia around June 25.
The spacecraft is currently orbiting the moon with its precious cargo and waiting for the perfect time to begin its journey back to Earth.