Descent trajectory reconstruction and landing site positioning of Chang’E-4 on the lunar farside

Liu, Jianjun; Ren, Xin; Yan, Wei; Li, Chunlai; Zhang, He; Yang, Jia; Zeng, Xingguo; Chen, Wangli; Gao, Xinjie; Liu, Dawei; Xu, Tianheng; Zhang, Xiaoxia; Ni, Tao; Zhang, Hongbo; Zuo, Wei; Shi, Yan; Wen, Wu

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12278-3

Cited by 70 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In this work, we report the LPR results for the first 9 months derived from channel one (CH-1, 60 MHz) data and test our interpretations using LPR simulation. A stratigraphic model of the surveying area (landing coordinates based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter terrain data: 177.5885°E, 45.4561°S, −5927 m 28 , 29 ) was generated from the extracted reflectors profile, which suggests possible lava flows sources and a potentially complex buried topography. The local geological history of the CE-4 landing site is inferred based on the revealed stratigraphy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First look by the Yutu-2 rover at the deep subsurface structure at the lunar farside

Lai

Bugiolacchi

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

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The unequal distribution of volcanic products between the Earth-facing lunar side and the farside is the result of a complex thermal history. To help unravel the dichotomy, for the first time a lunar landing mission (Chang’e-4, CE-4) has targeted the Moon’s farside landing on the floor of Von Kármán crater (VK) inside the South Pole-Aitken (SPA). We present the first deep subsurface stratigraphic structure based on data collected by the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover during the initial nine months exploration phase. The radargram reveals several strata interfaces beneath the surveying path: buried ejecta is overlaid by at least four layers of distinct lava flows that probably occurred during the Imbrium Epoch, with thicknesses ranging from 12 m up to about 100 m, providing direct evidence of multiple lava-infilling events that occurred within the VK crater. The average loss tangent of mare basalts is estimated at 0.0040-0.0061.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First look by the Yutu-2 rover at the deep subsurface structure at the lunar farside

Lai

Bugiolacchi

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

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“…The first-ever landing on the farside of the Moon (Figure 1) was realized by Chang'e-4 (CE-4) mission with its successful touchdown in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on 3 January 2019 [1][2][3]. As the largest confirmed impact basin on the Moon [4], SPA basin is thought to have penetrated into lunar interior and excavated deep materials from lower crust and upper mantle during its formation [5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mineralogy of Chang’e-4 landing site: preliminary results of visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer

Chen

Ling

Qiao

et al. 2020

Sci. China Inf. Sci.

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The exploration of mafic anomaly in South Pole-Aitken (SPA, the largest confirmed) basin on the Moon provides important insights into lunar interior. The landing of Chang'e-4 (CE-4) and deployment of Yutu-2 rover on the discontinuous ejecta from Finsen crater enabled in-situ measurements of the unusual mineralogy in the central portion of SPA basin with visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer (VNIS). Here we present detailed processing procedures based on the level 2B data of CE-4 VNIS and preliminary mineralogical results at the exploration area of Yutu-2 rover. A systematic processing pipeline is developed to derive credible reflectance spectra, based on which several spectral and mineral indices are calculated to constrain the mafic mineralogy. The mafic components in the soils and boulder around CE-4 landing site are concluded as clinopyroxene-bearing with intermediate composition and probably dominated by pigeonite although the possibility of mixing orthopyroxen (OPX) and calcic clinopyroxene (CPX) also exists. These mineralogical results are more consistent with a petrogenesis that the CE-4 regolith and rock fragment are derived from rapid-cooling magmatic systems and we interpret that the materials at the CE-4 landing site ejected from Finsen crater are probably recrystallized from impact melt settings.

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“…5. CE-4 successfully landed in the main landing site of Crater Von Kármán in the north of SPA basin on January 3, 2019 (Liu et al 2019;Wu et al 2019). SPA basin has a diameter of about 2500 km and a depth of about 13 km.…”

Section: Ce-4 Landing Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landing Site Selection and Overview of China’s Lunar Landing Missions

Liu

Zeng

et al. 2020

Space Sci Rev

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Landing site selection is of fundamental importance for lunar landing mission and it is closely related to the scientific goals of the mission. According to the widely concerned lunar science goals and the landing site selection of the ongoing lunar missions; China has carried out the selection of landing site for a series of Chang’ E (CE) missions. Under this background, this paper firstly introduced the principles, process, method and result of landing site selection of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), and then analyzed the support of the selected landing sites to the corresponding lunar research. This study also pointed out the outcomes that could possibly contribute to the key lunar questions on the basis of the selected landing sites of CE-4 and CE-5 such as deep material in South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, lunar chronology, volcanic thermodynamics and geological structure evolution history of the Moon. Finally, this approach analyzed the development trend of China’s follow-up lunar landing missions, and suggested that the South Pole Region of the Moon could be the landing site of high priority for the future CE missions.

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Descent trajectory reconstruction and landing site positioning of Chang’E-4 on the lunar farside

Cited by 70 publications

References 22 publications

First look by the Yutu-2 rover at the deep subsurface structure at the lunar farside

First look by the Yutu-2 rover at the deep subsurface structure at the lunar farside

Mineralogy of Chang’e-4 landing site: preliminary results of visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer

Landing Site Selection and Overview of China’s Lunar Landing Missions

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