China's moon rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy that lasted two weeks, or one lunar night, in a move designed to ride out harsh climactic conditions.

Yutu awakened autonomously at 5:09 am on Saturday and has finished necessary setting procedures and entered a normal working mode following orders from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, according to a statement from the BACC on Sunday.

It has started its rove around the moon surface on scientific missions.