Oh well, if we can't see behind the lander, let's look under the lander.

This is one of the descent frames which was released in a reasonably good resolution. I have turned it so north is approximately at the top. I superimposed the footpad on it from the big mosaic. Then I took an image of the drill in the ground and figured out where it is in the descent image. So the drilled spot is at the left end of the visible drill tube in that image.

Phil

The sampling arm has a camera on it like Insight, so it should be possible to do a panorama, just need to stitch out the portion of the field being blocked by the end of the scoop.

Here's hoping! Meanwhile, looking under the lander again, as far as I can figure out at the moment this is where the other footpads should be. Does anyone have a diagram of the lander with dimensions?

Phil

I do have this, hopefully it helps:

Given Hungry4info's dimensional image, it should be possible to calibrate all the other parts (solar panel size, lander legs, ascender...etc.,).

John

And now,...

Chang'e-5 is the first Chinese Lander to fly the Flag...

A second panorama has been made, showing the arm, the flag and trenches where samples were collected.


Link to full resolution version.

I made an animation to compare 1st and 2nd panoramas. There is some difference in the projection setup.

And a fascinating big crater behind the flag....

Yeah, I've been waiting for this for so long!
Only now is the mission on the surface of the Moon complete and I can sleep peacefully...

Trenches from "second panorama"

Edit: And my rough attempt to remove shadows (but there are quite a lot „artificial” pixels along the shadow borders)

Mons Rumker is a volcanic construct thought to post-date the Mare basalt.
Do we have a location of the Chang'e 5 landing site relative to Mons Rumker, or an
accurate Lat-Long of the site? All I've found are images from the descent camera
related to earlier pre-landing LROC imagery.

--Bill

Its interesting to follow the importance givem to Flags in Space, the term GeoPolitics will achieve a new height, SpacePolitics...

Yeah, its at about 43.06 N and 51.9 W. According to Hungry4Info on a previous post (page 10) it is more accurately at 43.05680 and 51.91648

Using LROC Quickmap and my best guess as to where Rumker Mons starts, I get about 140.7 km to the WSW.

You sure about Mons Rumker post dating the local Maria? I haven't heard that. Rumker seems pretty cratered, even accounting for the fact that some of those craters would be volcanic.

On an aside I've noticed that where the landing legs and the scoop dug in, the soil there seems to be unusually gravelly. That's a good thing. Plenty of small rocks and pebbles to scoop up.

Bill - see this open access paper about the region:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...9-9100.SSERVI17


Especially Figure 11 which gives ages based on crater counts. Mons Rumker is the oldest feature in the area. The basalts at the landing site are the youngest in the area and among the youngest on the Moon.

See post 164 in this thread for a landing site locator, and from the first panel you should be able to find the site on other maps.

Phil

My current sampling sequence image. I don't expect anything after the last one, but there may be intermediate versions I can insert as we get more images (and of course, better quality images of the earlier sites).

Phil