Chang'e-4 farside landing mission Options

[Phil Stooke]

Just coming to the end of day 45, and I'm on the hunt for a drive diary or any other news.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Well into the morning of day 46 but no news to report.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Lunar day 46 is about to end - tomorrow might be the last activity for the rover with sunset a day later. No news yet.

However, here is a paper about something I was not aware of. The ramp down which Yutu 2 drove to exit the lander had temperature probes on its outer end which pressed into the regolith and provided temperature data for several lunar days, giving information on surface properties.

Phil

[marsbug]

If this has been mentioned elsewhere; My apologies. According to this article from Space.com there's been an update on Yutu-2's mission: https://www.space.com/china-yutu-2-rover-st...e-moon-far-side

[Phil Stooke]

More information just appeared - just total drive distances for some recent lunar days.

These are from the institution which releases data for public use. We should be able to download images and construct panoramas but I can't put the time into it.


https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/zhmanager/notice...detailId=888437

As of the end of June 2022 , the Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 lunar rover have completed the scientific exploration of the 43rd lunar day, and the lunar rover's accumulated mileage has reached 1,231.7 meters .


https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/zhmanager/notice...detailId=893181

As of the end of July 2022, the Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 lunar rover have completed the scientific exploration of the 44th lunar day, and the lunar rover's cumulative mileage has reached 1,248.4 meters.


https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/zhmanager/notice...detailId=895333

As of the end of August 2022 , the Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 lunar rover have completed the scientific exploration of the 45th lunar day, and the lunar rover's cumulative mileage has reached 1,282.4 meters.


The short drive on day 44 suggests that a lot of time was spent on intensive study of an interesting target, probably a rock. Sadly we are not getting drive diaries any more to fill in details.


Phil

[Phil Stooke]

OK, very odd situation here. It looks like these figures in the previous post can't be trusted.

Andrew Jones tweets:

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1574308716425449472

"At last, a new image from Yutu-2 on the far side of the moon. Turns out the rover was stationary for 2 lunar days (D44+D45) as BACC has been sorting out reaction wheel saturation on the Queqiao relay satellite. Yutu-2 is now in Day 46 and back on the move. "

The point on my map which I showed as the 44th night was really the 43rd night. No move on days 44 and 45, and a drive on day 46 to approach a small gravelly-rimmed crater.

So what was going on with the BAO site? No idea.

Phil

[marsbug]

Someone basically reporting what activity had been planned before the relay satellite's reaction wheel issue came up?

[Phil Stooke]

That might be possible, though I don't think they plan ahead like that. The driving seems to be done one short (7 to 8 m) drive at a time with the next step planned based on the new stereo imaging from the latest stop.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Looking up at the evening sky today - a beautiful first quarter Moon. When you see first quarter, it's sunset for Yutu 2 on the far side. The end of day 47. No news yet but I hope to get a reliable distance or even (dare I hope) a map soon.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Sill no news on day 47, but day 48 is beginning on the far side of the Moon.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Day 48 just ended on the lunar farside. No news yet but I will link to anything I find and update my map when I get more information.

Phil

[Huguet]

Day 48 just ended on the lunar farside. No news yet but I will link to anything I find and update my map when I get more information.

Phil

They keep releasing, every month, the raw data (plenty off)...
Last time i upload all was just from Jan2019 till Marc 2020... Time to upgrade it...

https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/enmanager/home

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[Phil Stooke]

This is good news. Can you tell us what you will do with the images?

Phil

[Huguet]

This is good news. Can you tell us what you will do with the images?

Phil

3d Models using the PCAM Bubbles.
It's nice to understand the dust and fractal impact craters... can be observed craters as small as a hand, even smallers.
I used it back on first releases to help simulate the same usage on confined space using Gopro cameras.

I Will update the bubbles, align them, make a full model and post it here in lidar cloud formats. Will be nice to study it in close.

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[Phil Stooke]

First quarter Moon smiling down on us, meaning it is the end of day 49 in von Karman crater. Absolutely no news. The once fruitful sources have dried up completely. The most I am hoping for now is a summary at the end of the year or a journal paper summarizing the first 4 years of operation. There was a 2 year summary and a 3 year summary.

This site:

https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/zhmanager/notice...detailId=898798

says:

As of the end of September 2022 , the Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 lunar rover have completed their forty-sixth lunar day scientific exploration work, and the cumulative mileage of the lunar rover has reached 1316.3 meters.

But I have noted problems with their numbers previously.

Phil