Dec. 14, 2014, Sunday

Hello, everyone! I am the lander of the Chang'e 3 lunar probe. I am talking to you 380,000 kilometers away on the moon. December 14 is a special day for the Jade Rabbit rover and me - the anniversary of our lunar mission.

We are both happy living here on the moon. On the morning of Nov. 1, the test lunar orbiter of Chang'e 5 successfully completed a mission to the moon and back to earth. We are very excited about that, and eager to meet Chang'e 5 as soon as possible.

Unaccustomed to the environment of the moon, the Jade Rabbit fell ill on January 16. Since then, this lively rabbit who used to walk around has to stay on site just like me. I feel very sorry for her, but she is optimistic. She often says to me: "We are so close to each other. At least I am good company when you feel tired and lonely."

Before the mission, the Jade Rabbit and I often wondered if the moon was really like what the legend tells: whether a beautiful fairy lives here, and under the cinnamon trees, many real Jade rabbits play around. In fact, the moon is such a desolate and quiet place.

Because the moon does not have any atmosphere, the temperature difference between the day and the night is great. At night, the temperature can drop to minus 180 degrees Celsius. To protect us from the severe cold, every month we go to sleep during the moon night and wake up during the moon day. The Jade Rabbit and I have been through 13 sleeps and wake-ups.

The lunar eclipse is a distant astronomical phenomenon for you, but the two lunar eclipses we have experienced on the moon were unforgettable. The first one happened in the afternoon of April 15 and lasted for 5 hours; and the second one happened in the evening of October 8 and lasted for 4 hours. During the eclipse, the moon was in total darkness and rapidly lost heat. As the temperature quickly dropped from 90 degrees Celsius to minus 110 degrees Celsius, the Jade Rabbit and I thought it was the end of the world.

Fortunately, scientists from Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) had taken preventive measures to reduce our power consumption and adjust our thermal control, so we were able to survive these two lunar eclipses.

In the past year, I have successfully completed several important tasks. I have carried out 8 UHF communication tests and transferred data for the Jade Rabbit. I have conducted over 30 radio measurement experiments. Based on the data I collected, scientists on earth have acquired high precision observed values, so the performance of the BACC deep space interferometry system could be confirmed. My moon-based telescope has taken tens of thousands of precious images through sky surveys and fixed point observations.

Happy times are always so short. We have just received instructions from Beijing to go to sleep for the moon night. Although I still have a lot to tell, I must go to sleep, otherwise I will freeze to death. So, I have to say goodbye to all of you.

I will miss you! 

The article is edited and translated from《广寒宫里考验多》, source: People's Daily, author: Jiang Ning and Qi Dengfeng.