In one (more romantic) version of the lore, the Mystic Realm awarded Hou Yi (the husband) the Immortal Pill/Potion after he prevented the earth from being scorched. He and Chang'e were going to both take the potion so they can be together forever. A group of bandits heard about the potion, and broke into their home while Hou Yi was away, Chang'e had no choice but to swallow the potion entirely and that gave her divine powers in addition to immortality, she was able to escape and ascend into Heaven, and because she's no longer human, she and Hou Yi were forever separated...

> with only one rabbit being her companion.

So that's why one of their rovers was called "Jade Rabbit"

The "moon rabbit" [0] is a rather popular interpretation of the Moons surface in Asian folklore.

Japanese/Korean people believe the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for rice cake.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit

The trisolarian plot in Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem also seems to have borrowed from this myth.

Having read (and enjoyed) that trilogy, I'm not making the connection. Which part?

There is a 3-star system that causes periodic droughts on a planet in the system based on which star(s) the planet's semi-stable orbit crosses.

In the novel, the three-body civilization would go extinct if there are two or three suns in the sky.

And to add to that the relay satellite is named Queqiao (鹊桥, Megapie Bridge). It is how the separated lovers Zhinv (织女, Vega) and Niulang (牛郎, Altair) meet once every year. Zhinv is the seventh daughter of the Yuhuangdai (the god of gods, like Zeus), and fell in love with human Niulang. After discovering with anger, Wuangmuniangniang (wife of Yuhuangdadi, like Hera) separated the two with the Milky Way. Touched by the love story of Zhinv and Niulang, the magpies form the Queqiao bridge to help them meet once a year on July 7, which became the Chinese Valentine (七夕).

Most of Chinese think Yuhuangdadi(玉皇大帝) and Wangmuniangniang(王母娘娘) are husband&wife, they work together to control all the gods(gods are not like western gods, they have 仙 and 神), but there are multiple versions of myths(books) and rumors mentioning them, none of them tells the relationship of them for sure, we can only deduce their relationship from the context. From different versions of sources, they can be: 1. husband&wife, 2. colleagues, 3. sister&brother, 4. mother&son.

Smite fans will know all this lore as well :) Chang'e main here.

Nothing more fun than a duo Hou Yi/Chang’e lane with their respective wedding skins :)

And the rover, Yutu(玉兔) is the jade rabbit, who pounds a mortar and pestle in Guanghan Palace on the moon. She later escapes to earth and Chang'e brings her back to the moon in 西遊記 (Journey to the West) right before Sun Wukong (孫悟空; japanese reading: Son Gokū; yes, like in Dragonball, heavily based on 西遊記) defeats her.

Beautiful story, thanks for sharing :)