Chang'e 4 Lands at the Far Side of the Moon

Chang'e 4 began its travel to the moon at 02:23 Beijing time on December 8, 2018 atop a LM-3B launch vehicle from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. After separated from the carrier rocket, Chang'e 4 entered the Earth-moon transfer orbit with perigee of 200 km and apogee of 420 000 km. The LM-3B carrier rocket for this mission was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, whose orbit insertion accuracy was improved over 30% compared with that used for the Chang'e 3 mission. The launch was the 294th flight of LM series launch vehicle, also the 34th launch in 2018.

The Chang'e 4 probe is composed of a lander and a rover. At 10:26 Beijing time on January 3, after 26 days of travel,the combination of the lander/rover made a soft touch down at the preset landing site, which is near 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude of the far side of the moon, the Vom Karman Crater within the South Pole-Aitken Basin. A landing camera onboard the lander obtained continuous lunar surface pictures of the landing area during the powered descending phase of the lander.

Then at 22:22 Beijing time on January 3, the rover separated from the lander and rolled on to the lunar surface. The monitoring camera C aboard the lander took the picture of the rover, leaving thefirst tracks on the far side of the moon, and the image was sent back to Earth via the Queqiao relay satellite. The name of the rover was revealed on January 4 as Yutu 2, which stood out among many names received in a naming contest for the rover.

8 payloads including 2 internationally collaborated ones are equipped on the Chang'e 4 probe. The lander carries 4 payloads including a topography camera, a landing camera, a low frequency spectrometer and a lunar surface neutron and radiation dose detector from Germany. There are 4 payloads installed on the Yutu 2 rover, which are a panoramic camera,a lunar penetrating radar, an infrared imaging spectrometer and a neutral atom detector from Sweden. These instruments will conduct low frequency radio observation and research on terrain, mineral composition and the lunar subsurface structure on the far side of the moon through in-situ and patrol exploration as well as a lunar environmental study including that related to neutral and radiation dose and neutral atom.In addition, the lander also had piggybacked biological science experiments. (CAI Jinman/China Space News)

Chang'e 4 is being put to the moon atop a LM-3B Photo: WEI Jinghua