China 's first lunar rover deployed successfully from the unmanned spacecraft Chang ' e-3 that landed on the moon Saturday . Jade Rabbit ( called Yutu in Chinese ) 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 patrol the moon 's surface , studying the structure of the lunar crust as well as soil and rocks , for at least three months . The robot 's name was decided by a public online poll and comes from a Chinese myth about the pet white rabbit of a goddess , Chang ' e , who is said to live on the moon . Weighing 140 kilograms , the slow-moving rover carries an optical telescope for astronomical observations and a powerful ultraviolet camera that will monitor how solar activity affects the various layers -- troposphere , stratosphere and ionosphere -- that make up the Earth 's atmosphere , China 's information technology ministry said in a statement . The Jade Rabbit is also equipped with radioisotope heater units , allowing it to function during the cold lunar nights when temperatures plunge 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 's space program . 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 constitutes the second phase of China 's moon exploration program , which includes orbiting , landing and returning to Earth . In 2010 , China captured images of the landing site for the 2013 probe , the Bay of Rainbows , which is considered to be one of the most picturesque parts of the moon . Tourist trips to the moon by 2043 ? Within the next decade , China expects to open a permanent space station in the Earth 's orbit . But scientists in the United States have expressed concern that the Chang ' e-3 mission could skew the results of a NASA study of the moon 's dust environment . The spacecraft 's descent is likely to create a noticeable plume on the moon 's surface that could interfere with research already being carried out by NASA 's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer ( LADEE ) , Jeff Plescia , chair of NASA 's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group told news site Space.com in November . The Chang ' e-3 spacecraft blasted 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 . On Tuesday , it descended into an elliptical orbit with its lowest point just 15 kilometers off the lunar surface , a spokesperson for China 's Administration of Science , Technology and Industry for National Defense told Xinhua . The Soviet Union 's Luna 24 probe was the last space mission to land on the moon in August 1976 -- four years after the United States launched the manned Apollo 17 mission . Iran claims second launch of monkey into space and back .
China 's unmanned space craft successfully released a moon rover . Three nations now have soft-landed on moon 's surface . The Jade Rabbit rover will study lunar surface . China has rapidly built up its space program .