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E China's first lunar rover(月球车) moved successfully from the unmanned spacecraft Chang'e-3 that landed on the moon Saturday. As China’s first mission carrier to the moon, Jade Rabbit is a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples to a depth of 30 meters.The solar-powered rover will move along the moon's surface, studying the structure of the lunar crust（外壳）as well as soil and rocks, for at least three months. Weighing 140 kilograms, the slow-moving rover carries an optical(光学的) telescope for astronomical observations and a powerful ultraviolet（紫外线的）camera that will monitor how solar activity affects the various layers that make up the Earth's atmosphere, China's information technology ministry said in a statement.The Jade Rabbit is also equipped with nuclear heater units, allowing it to function during the cold lunar nights when temperatures drop as low as -180°C (-292°F).The moon exploration makes China one of only three nations -- after the United States and the former Soviet Union -- to "soft-land" on the moon's surface, and the first to do so in more than three decades. China has rapidly built up its space program since it first sent an astronaut into space in 2003. In 2012, the country conducted 18 space launches, according to the Pentagon.The Chang'e-3 mission is considered as the second stage of China's moon exploration program, which includes orbiting,landing and returning to Earth.In 2010, China captured images of the landingsite for the 2013 exploration, the Bay of Rainbows, which is considered to beone of the most beautiful parts of the moon. The Chang'e-3 spacecraft lifted off from a Long March 3B rocket in China's Sichuan province on December 2 and reached the moon's orbit at 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) from its surface less than five days later.
