Story highlights China makes public high-resolution photos taken by its lunar lander and rover 
 
 They show the moon's crust in vivid detail 
 
 It's a show of openness for the country's usually secretive space program 
 
 Beijing (CNN) China has released hundreds of high-resolution photos taken by its Chang'e-3 lunar lander and rover, showing the moon's surface in vivid detail. 
 
 The China National Space Administration made the images, video clips and scientific data available on its website in a rare show of openness for the country's usually secretive space program. 
 
 China sent its first unmanned lunar probe, the Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," to the moon in 2013 as part of its Chang'e-3 mission, becoming only the third nation after the United States and Russia to land on the moon's surface. 
 
 Despite a shaky start to its mission, the Jade Rabbit is still working and sending images and data back to earth. 
 
 Read More ||||| Image copyright Weibo Image caption Jade Rabbit overcame technical problems to become a national icon for China 
 
 China's Jade Rabbit has bid its final farewell and shut down after 31 months exploring the Moon, far outliving its expected lifespan. 
 
 Jade Rabbit arrived on the Moon in December 2013 in the Chang'e-3 space mission, and has been exploring the surface in search of natural resources. 
 
 It made China the third country to reach the Moon after Russia and the US. 
 
 It has also been an active social media. Its final message said: "The Moon has prepared a long dream for me." 
 
 The rover is named after Yutu, the pet rabbit of the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e, in turn the namesake of the lunar mission. 
 
 Image copyright Weibo Image caption The official Jade Rabbit Weibo account has shared cute cartoons of its adventures, here arriving on the Moon in 2013 
 
 Designed to survive just three months, it had been operating for more than two years, lasting longer than Russia's 1970 Moon rover Lunokhod 1, which lived a total of 11 months. 
 
 The Jade Rabbit's main objective was to achieve China's first soft-landing on the moon, as well as to explore the surface. 
 
 'I'm the rabbit that has seen the most stars.' 
 
 On micro-blogging site Weibo, the rover's official first-person account has a following of over 600,000 fans. 
 
 It has kept them updated with news of its discoveries, as well as cute cartoons about its antics. 
 
 Image copyright Weibo Image caption The rabbit was declared prematurely dead in February 2014, when it ran into numerous mechanical difficulties 
 
 In February 2014, it briefly went quiet during a lunar night, but after recovering from mechanical difficulties posted the message: "Hi, anybody there?" 
 
 But in a message sent on Sunday it said: "This time it really is goodnight," the rover said 
 
 "There are still many questions I would like answers to, but I'm the rabbit that has seen the most stars." 
 
 "The Moon has prepared a long dream for me, I don't know what it will be like - will I be a Mars explorer, or be sent back to Earth?" 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and since then has taken huge advancements, including the deployment of an experimental space station 
 
 China's space agency confirmed Jade Rabbit's demise on Wednesday and netizens have been mourning his loss. 
 
 "Good night Jade Rabbit, I hope you have beautiful carrot-filled dreams. We are all proud of you," said one user on Weibo. 
 
 "I'll fly to the Moon to bring you home!" said one another. "You'll be able to sleep comfortably in a museum then." 
 
 Image copyright Weibo Image caption "Wait for me to graduate from University- I'll fly to the moon to bring you home!" said one user on Weibo. "You'll be able to sleep comfortably in a museum then", says the first comment 
 
 "Sweet dreams. One day we will be reunited in a dream filled with a million stars and beautiful scenery. But for now, your dream has already been achieved," was another Weibo user's parting note. 
 
 "Goodnight, sleep well," another user simply said. 
 
 "I don't know why I'm so heartbroken. It's just a machine after all," said another netizen. 
 
 Jade Rabbit joins 60 American and Russian space vehicles, three Apollo buggies and two golf balls - hit by astronaut Alan Shepard - left behind on the Moon. 
 
 China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, and since then has taken huge advancements, including the deployment of an experimental space station. 
 
 It will next year attempt to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon that would return to Earth with samples. ||||| China’s Yutu lunar rover, a gold unmanned space craft also known as the “Jade Rabbit,” has discovered a new kind of moon rock. 
 
 The rock, a basalt from lava that likely flowed about 3 billion years ago, shows different iron oxide and titanium levels from those found by previous Soviet and US missions to the moon four decades ago, according to a Dec. 22 study in Nature Communications led by planetary scientist Zongcheng Ling. Unlike earlier samples from the moon’s surface, which were either high or low in titanium, the newly discovered basalt shows intermediate levels, implying that the moon is made of more diverse stuff than scientists previously thought. 
 
 “Our analysis indicates that this young lunar mare region has unique compositional characteristics, and represents a new type of mare basalt that has not been sampled by previous Apollo and Luna missions and lunar meteorite collections,” wrote Ling and his team. “The CE-3 landing site and in situ analyses of the rocks and soils derived from the fresh crater near the landing site provide key new ground truth for some of the youngest volcanism on the Moon.” 
 
 Bradley Joliff, a scientist at Washington University of St Louis who also worked on the report, told the Guardian he and his team will be able to use the discovery to extrapolate about the moon’s history. 
 
 “The diversity tells us that the Moon’s upper mantle is much less uniform in composition than Earth’s” said Joliff. “And correlating chemistry with age, we can see how the moon’s volcanism changed over time.” 
 
 It’s a nice victory for the Jade Rabbit, which has had a bit of a rocky run since landing on the moon’s surface in December 2013. It has struggled through mechanical troubles and extreme cold, and even been declared dead. Although the rover cannot move, it’s far from dead, continuing to collect data, photographs, and a healthy following on the Chinese microblogging site, Weibo.
– Its mission had a rocky start, but China's Jade Rabbit moon rover is now sending back some nifty high-resolution images of the lunar surface, reports CNN. China has made them available to download here, though Business Insider finds the process "frustratingly complicated." Luckily, it adds, Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society has done much of the heavy lifting, so head here if you'd like to see many, many more.