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

Jianjun Liu, Xin Ren, Wei Yan, Chunlai Li (), He Zhang, Yang Jia, Xingguo Zeng, Wangli Chen, Xingye Gao, Dawei Liu, Xu Tan, Xiaoxia Zhang, Tao Ni, Hongbo Zhang, Wei Zuo, Yan Su and Weibin Wen
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Jianjun Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xin Ren: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Yan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chunlai Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
He Zhang: China Academy of Space Technology
Yang Jia: China Academy of Space Technology
Xingguo Zeng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wangli Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xingye Gao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dawei Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xu Tan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiaoxia Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tao Ni: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hongbo Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Zuo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yan Su: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Weibin Wen: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Chang’E-4 (CE-4) was the first mission to accomplish the goal of a successful soft landing on the lunar farside. The landing trajectory and the location of the landing site can be effectively reconstructed and determined using series of images obtained during descent when there were no Earth-based radio tracking and the telemetry data. Here we reconstructed the powered descent trajectory of CE-4 using photogrammetrically processed images of the CE-4 landing camera, navigation camera, and terrain data of Chang’E-2. We confirmed that the precise location of the landing site is 177.5991°E, 45.4446°S with an elevation of −5935 m. The landing location was accurately identified with lunar imagery and terrain data with spatial resolutions of 7 m/p, 5 m/p, 1 m/p, 10 cm/p and 5 cm/p. These results will provide geodetic data for the study of lunar control points, high-precision lunar mapping, and subsequent lunar exploration, such as by the Yutu-2 rover.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12278-3

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