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

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.