China's robotic lunar lander sent back its first sharp images on Sunday, showing the six-wheeled Yutu rover a day after driving off its landing platform to begin a three-month sojourn across the moon's barren soils.
Chang'e 3's rover, dubbed Yutu, appears on the moon's surface Sunday at 15.12.2013.
Adorned with a Chinese flag, the Yutu rover appeared in imagery taken by a camera mounted on the Chang'e 3 mission's stationary lander, which touched down on the moon Saturday at 1311:18 GMT (8:11:18 a.m. EST).
The rover disconnected from the landing platform beginning about six hours after touchdown, severing electrical and mechanical connections before sliding off the lander on a ramp and driving on to the moon's surface.
One of the lander's cameras beamed low frame-rate video of the rover's first drive back to Earth on Saturday, but Sunday's pictures -- carefully choreographed in preflight planning -- showed more detail as the two vehicles were positioned about 30 feet apart.
A report on Chinese state television said the rover would drive around the lander and take more photos of the other side of the craft, which appeared to come down on a relatively flat plain.
The boxes overlaying this image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate locations of Chang'e 3 descent images. The spacecraft is probably in, or very near, the smallest box. See a larger image.
China said the landing would target a site in Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, but the spacecraft descended earlier than originally reported by Chinese media. It ended up in Mare Imbrium, one of the dark regions of the moon carved out by a massive meteorite 3.9 billion years ago and filled with solidified lava.
The Chang'e 3 lunar lander and moon rover is part of the second phase of China's three-step robotic lunar exploration program.
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