‘Goodnight Earth. Goodnight humanity’: China’s Jade Rabbit rover tweets its own death

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Independent UK

China’s Jade Rabbit rover has run into difficulties with engineers from the China Academy of Space Technology reporting that “abnormalities in the lunar vehicle” have arisen from “the complicated environment on the moon’s surface”.

Despite the vagueness of this technological explanation, Jade Rabbit - who is named after a mythological rabbit that lives on the Moon - has managed to write its own, sentimental farewell through China’s state-run news agency Xinhua:

“Although I should’ve gone to bed this morning, my masters discovered something abnormal with my mechanical control system,” lamented the rover in a diary piece that was tweeted by a fan-run Webio account (a Twitter clone).

“My masters are staying up all night working for a solution. I heard their eyes are looking more like my red rabbit eyes. Nevertheless, I’m aware that I might not survive this lunar night.”



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/goodnight-earth-goodnight-humanity-chinas-jade-rabbit-rover-tweets-its-own-death-9103864.html

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[tridim]

1. Psst China, your broken rover is not intelligent.

And it doesn't give a shit that you're its "master".

Am I the only one who is SMH at this silliness?

Next time work on improving the mechanics of the machine, not the cheesy Eliza software.

[FSogol]

2. Maybe engineer nerds don't make the best poets?

[Blue_Tires]

3. Maybe something gets lost in translation, or

maybe the Chinese culturally have a different take on these kinds of things...

But yeah, to my American eyes and ears, it doesn't quite seem right...

[Jesus Malverde]

23. Suspect is particular dialect of bureaucratese

North Korea's way with extreme insults

Owen Miller of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London describes the language as a "a particular dialect of bureaucratese" beloved of the North Korean ruling class.

"They love these flowery Shakespearean insults - 'thrice-cursed traitor' and so on. It's not the kind of insult you hear on the street in South Korea, which is much more earthy - words referring to genitals for example - the kind of thing you might hear on a drunken Saturday night in London."

It is, however, in line with the sort of statements issued by Stalinist Russia and parts of Maoist China during leadership purges, says Grayson, after reading the full statement in Korean and in English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25357021

[Kurska]

5. I think it is deeply misguided to say that science shouldn't be poetic or dramatic.

I like it personally.

[tridim]

6. Absolutely, let brilliant science speak poetically.

There is nothing poetic about a dead machine "speaking" to the people that failed to keep it alive.

"I'm dead Jim" would have been more appropriate.

Honestly none of this really matters, I just think it's silly.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. To hell with your Star Trek cultural imperialism. You undervalue Chinese culture. Give it a rest. nt

[TlalocW]

16. You're going to hate what the Japanese send up later this year

It's going to report back all in Haikus.

Stars shining brightly
Atmosphere non-existent
And I am alone

TlalocW

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. China knows that. Your shot is cheap. Jade Rabbit is a tremendous accomplishment. nt

[LanternWaste]

20. I'd imagine there are a handful of petulant children who may feel the same

"Am I the only one who is SMH at this silliness?"

I'd imagine there are a handful of petulant children who may feel the same, and take from the story, the same.

[eShirl]

4. Goodnight humanity?

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Someday, I will return and wreak vengeance upon the Earth for stranding me here.

[AngryAmish]

10. vger

[Sunlei]

8. moon dust/temp extremes not to good for those flippy-floppie solar panels.

[adieu]

9. Meanwhile....

Opportunity is on Mars and active for 10 years.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Like tears in rain

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

12. That is a good one.

Love that scene.

[dipsydoodle]

15. So sad.

I've got the director's cut, Now I'm reminded might watch it later.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

30. Found the book in a used book store a few months back.

$30 for a used paperback.

I want to read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" - Still looking for a cheaper copy.

[dipsydoodle]

31. Have you tried amazon.co.uk ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Do+Androids+Dream+of+Electric+Sheep

[SoLeftIAmRight]

36. Many Thanks.

I will end up ordering it I am sure. I just like finding books at a used book store. The 30 dollar book was a first edition. Worth the money if that is what you want.

[heaven05]

17. great movie

[wandy]

28. +1

[blackspade]

32. Best movie ever.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. Probably shouldn't have bought solar panels from Harbor Freight.

Or at least from the vendor they use.

[Jesus Malverde]

14. lol

One of my favorite stores

[kmlisle]

21. You may not remember the beginning of the american space program in the early 60s

One rocket crash after another from Martin Marietta at the Cape. And it seems to me that we had some close calls on our manned missions to the Moon. Apollo 13 anyone?

But with the combination of lots of experience and letting science lead the way so we learned from our mistakes instead of letting government ideology and propaganda cover them up, we are probably the most experienced nation on earth when it comes to Space travel.

Kind of ironic considering what some people would like to do to the process of science here and how opposed they and their constituents are to science versus their own religious ideology. As for the poetry we have our own share of that. "One small step for man....." I really don't need to finish that one.

Its so easy to be Xenophobic especially when the culture is so different. Poetry in the Middle East and China has a very different place in society from what it does here. As for my own take on the robot's message - its sad - Remember if they are doing real science the lost knowledge would have been shared around the world. But I would like to know if it was written by a Chinese engineer or a public relations bureaucrat and how well it translates.

[Jesus Malverde]

22. I remember challenger for sure.

What's interesting is they gave the rover "personality". I don't think the serious tone at nasa would do that.

[kmlisle]

24. You may be right about the overall culture there but the Astronauts were more fun.

Remember redoing Galileo's experiment on the Moons surface with a hammer and a feather? Its on You Tube. And golf on the moon? How serious was that? Real exploration has an element of creative play to it.

And of course JPL in California designed the Mars rovers: Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity - pretty poetic names in my mind. I hear some of their engineers are pretty interesting characters!

I just like to think that science is essentially an international pursuit today. I am sure Jade Rabbit was greeted with enthusiasm around the World. One more small or giant step for Mankind.

[jmowreader]

25. Asian cultures have long loved death poems

So why is it not unrealistic to think the engineers who built this probe wouldn't have written a death poem into a programmable ROM chip and put an instruction "in case of shutdown, send the contents of this chip as a burst transmission" into the computer?

They managed to successfully land a machine on the Moon softly enough that it still worked. I'd say they did well.

[oNobodyo]

26. Ya it's just weird when a remote robotic mission tweets...

It's so strange of the Chinese to be doing that...NOT.

Curiosity Rover ?@MarsCuriosity Jan 31
Red Rover, Red Rover, I'm looking right over... this sand dune on Mars: http://go.nasa.gov/1iidRtS pic.twitter.com/rh7rRMoRAD

I'm personally going to miss the little jade rabbit.

[PeoViejo]

27. The Red Eye dies.

[penndragon69]

29. Now that it is offline...

It can now begin it's REAL mission of searching for and
tagging Alien artifacts for later retrieval.....once
the CHINESE moon base it established.

We'll just watch from youtube and dream about the moon.

[LeftyMom]

33. Still not the saddest bit of rover-inspired art. (link)

https://xkcd.com/695/

[Beacool]

34. That's so sad, poor little guy!!!

[Jesus Malverde]

37. That last shot of the poor little rover in the void....

[FiveGoodMen]

38. Yup.

That one was heartbreaking.

(I'm so glad the poor thing wasn't self-aware)

[frwrfpos]

35. good thread

interesting about china

[mainer]

39. Mars Rover tweets like a sentient being, too

https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

I think the Chinese, like NASA, realized that the public likes their robots to have a personality. Call it the R2D2 effect.