What is "yutu"

Yutu may refer to:

• Yutu (rover), Chinese lunar rover
• Typhoon Yutu (disambiguation), several Pacific Ocean tropical cyclones
• Coalsack Dark Nebula, or Yutu in Inca astronomy
• Jade rabbit (Hanyu Pinyin: Yùtù; Wade-Giles: Yü-t'u), in East Asian folklore, a rabbit that lives on the Moon
• Youdu, also known as Yutu, the capital of the underworld in Chinese mythology

Yutu is an unmanned lunar rover that formed part of the Chinese Chang'e 3 mission to the Moon. It was launched at 17:30 UTC on 1 December 2013, and reached the Moon's surface on 14 December 2013. The mission marks the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976 and the first rover to operate there since the Soviet Lunokhod 2 ceased operations on 11 May 1973.

The rover encountered operational difficulties after the first 14-day lunar night (after about a month on the Moon), and was unable to move after the end of the second lunar night, though it continued to gather useful information for some months afterward. In October 2015, Yutu set the record for the longest operational period for a rover on the Moon. On 31 July 2016, Yutu ceased to operate after a total of 31 months, well beyond its original expected lifespan of 3 months.