“Do not go gentle into that good night”, China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover has taken Dylan Thomas’ words to heart, or motherboard, or something. The fate of the rover seemed sealed ever since it went into a hibernation mode on 25 January due to technical malfunctions.

Problems arose when Jade Rabbit (a.k.a Yutu) seemed to struggle coping with the harsh lunar environment. Unfortunately Chinese authorities would not disclose the precise reason for the malfunction only citing an “abnormality”.

Fast forward 14 bitterly cold nights later and Chinese officials are claiming that communication with the rover have been re-established, with the hopes of getting the Jade Rabbit going once again. Pei Zhaoyu, China’s lunar probe program spokesperson stated "Yutu has come back to life!... The rover stands a chance of being saved as it is still alive".  

The story of the Jade Rabbit is a pretty interesting one, China’s first man-made lunar vehicle landed on the moon’s surface almost 44 years after Russia’s (Soviet Union at the time) Lunokhod 1 landed on November 17, 1970. The launch and successful operation of the Jade Rabbit, was meant to be the first step in China’s re-invigorated space program. The premature demise of the lunar expedition was viewed as a major blow to that program’s future.

What was probably most peculiar throughout this whole process, was the rather poignant (although completely fake) narration the Jade Rabbit (or rather its programme engineers) gave in its final few days, sounding like something HAL 9000 would say.

“I originally thought I could hop around up here for three months”... “The Sun here has fallen, and the temperature is dropping fast. I’ve said a lot today, but I still feel it’s not enough”...  “I’ll tell everyone a little secret. I’m actually not that sad. I’m just in my own adventure story, and like any protagonist, I encountered a bit of a problem. Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humans.”

Now all is not lost for Jade Rabbit. We only hope he can tell us, what it saw on the the dark side of the moon.