According to UK outlet The Register, the rover was awoken first so as to release excess heat from its surface area.
Technicians working with the Chinese space agency told Xinhua that the Chang'e-4 recorded the moon's surface temperature dipping to —310 degrees Fahrenheit, much colder than initially expected.
"According to the measurements of Chang'e-4, the temperature of the shallow layer of the lunar soil on the far side of the moon is lower than the data obtained by the US Apollo mission on the near side of the moon," Zhang He, executive director of the Chang'e-4 probe project, told the outlet.
Temperatures on the moon vary widely, as a single lunar night lasts about 14 Earth nights. China's rover previously went on standby earlier this month to protect itself from lunar surface heat, after the Chinese space agency noted temps upwards of 390 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Chang'e-4 probes were deployed on January 3 to further study the lunar environment, cosmic radiation and interaction between solar wind and the moon's surface, Xinhua reported earlier this month.