Chang'e-4 farside landing mission Options

[Phil Stooke]

Here are two LRO images of the current location, enlarged from the originals and adjusted to the same scale.

The small white square is where the picture was taken from, if I am interpreting the drive diary correctly. It's at the noon location where the rover takes a break, and the pic was taken when it arrived in the later part of the morning.

I'm having trouble finding any obvious counterpart for the rock, which should be on the rim of the largest crater in the image. That crater is 20 m across and the rock is perhaps 1 m across.

The left image is the highest resolution image available (74 cm/pixel in the original frame). The right image is the one with the lowest sun angle and longest shadows, but about 1.8 m/pixel.

I am considering the possibility that the rock is on the far rim near the small crater.

Phil

[James Fincannon]

Hi Phil,

I kind of like the image M1311886645LC. It seems clearer. I think I see some rocks. Not at the crater you refer to but "left" of it. Usually this area has images that show few rocks.

James

[James Fincannon]

M1311886645LC is 0.71 m/pixel.

[James Fincannon]

M1311886645LC with possible high points marked.

[Phil Stooke]

You're right, I had missed that image which is slightly better resolution. I think the object just inside the big crater is the rock we are looking for.

Phil

[Explorer1]

And right on cue, made it onto late night comedy.
https://youtu.be/-dxsJAbchko?t=360
Yes Stephen, it is just a large boulder....

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1474728137250553860

Andrew Jones tweets that the total distance for Yutu 2 is now 965.8 m, about 65 m more than the last figure we had. That is the longest drive since lunar day 2. My impression of the terrain in the rover image showing the 'mysterious' rock is that the surface drops into a little hollow between the rover and the crater rim. If the rock is on the far side of the crater as suspected, it may not be visible at all until the rover climbs out of that depression, perhaps at the end of the day which is just starting now.

Phil

[Huguet]

New Image of the stone and maps released.

The "Mystery Little" rock is at near side of the rim.

"In the next month, Yutu 2 will detect the target rock at close range and sense the large impact crater behind it"

http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2022/01-07/9646793.shtml
https://twitter.com/YuqiiQian/status/1479448536341102593

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

Our suspicion that the rock was on the far rim was wrong, and the small size turns out to be correct but even smaller than suspected.

Phil

[ollopa]

Our suspicion that the rock was on the far rim was wrong, and the small size turns out to be correct but even smaller than suspected.

Phil

Phil: Can we ignore the old crater in this scene and focus just on the foreground? What looks like a small impact crater might have a slight elongation towards the small rock. Is this not a potential low-velocity secondary impact site (of "recent" origin)? If we draw a line from the "hut" through the centre of the small rockpile, where would that take us? I'm guessing from the small size of the hole we are talking no more than 10's of Km. distance.

[Phil Stooke]

Just saw your question today! It could be a rock ejected from elsewhere, but I am not sure the crater in the foreground lines up properly - it looks like it is aligned with the photo inset, not the actual location of the rock.

This post shows three views of the rock during the approach with different lighting. Screen grabs from a CCTV video.



Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Tipped off by a post on Sohu.com, here is a link to a great open access paper on the first 2 years of Yutu 2's travels. Check out the supplementary information too.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abj6660

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

The sun is rising over Von Karman crater now and Yutu 2 will soon begin its 40th lunar day on the Moon. No word yet on activities during the 39th day but there should be a drive diary soon.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Here is the new drive diary, with stories about exploring a little blocky crater called Treasure Pot and experiencing a drive fault as a sensor picked up a wheel issue caused by a small crater. Yutu 2 recovered and moved on to park for the night. Thanks to Andrew Jones for tweeting about the diary to alert us.

Phil

https://www.163.com/dy/article/H12824V80531TTYW.html

[Phil Stooke]

I have not seen a map update for Yutu 2 on lunar day 39, but looking at the images in the drive diary I estimate they would fit together like this.

Phil