Youth Games torch relay goes to the moon

BEIJING - China on Thursday executeded a "digital torch relay" for the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games via the Chang'e 3 moon lander.

On a huge screen, digital images showed mascot of the games Le Le, a colorful stone, running merrily with the Olympic torch in its hand, against the backdrop of a real-time picture captured by the lander.

The images were sent via a ground control station in Jiamusi city of Heilongjiang province to neigboring Russia then to the lander and forwarded to another station in Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The "digital torch relay" was the invention of a group of middle school students in Nanjing, the host city for the 2014 games slated in August.

Polar regions and the deep sea are also included in the relay.

China has made important breakthroughs in polar regions and deep sea exploration in the past few years. In February, China opened its fourth Antarctic research base Taishan. In 2012, Jiaolong, the country's most advanced manned submersible, achieved a record dive depth of more than 7,000 meters in the Pacific's Mariana Trench.

Comprising a lander and China's first moon rover Yutu, Chang'e-3 lunar probe soft-landed on the moon on Dec 15.

Yutu, named after the pet rabbit of the lunar goddess Chang'e, survived its design life of three months but is suffering from mechanical problems. The lander functioned normally.