China's Yutu Moon Rover Bites the Lunar Dust

China's first moon rover is dead after a record-setting 31 months on the lunar surface. The Yutu rover — the first robot to roll across the moon since the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover in the early 1970s — has ceased operations, Chinese officials announced last week, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Yutu touched down in December 2013 as part of China's Chang'e 3 moon mission, which also delivered a stationary lander to the lunar surface.