Chang'e-4 - Landing on the far side of Moon

China’s Chang’e-4 mission is the first mission where China achieved a major first in spaceflight. They landed with a lander on the far side of Moon.

The Chang’e-4 were launched on 7th December 2018 on a Long March 3B rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and entered lunar orbit on 12th December 2018. After calibrating the orbit and checking all systems the lander with a weight of 1,060 kg achieved a soft landing on 3rd January 2019 inside of the Karman crater of the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon.

The Chang’e-4 was the backup for the successful Chang’e-3 mission, so also this moon lander had a rover onboard. The rover with a weight of 140kg and a size of 1x1x1.5 meters – called Yutu-2 rolled down to the moon surface shortly after the landing and performed already for the first day a 50 meter drive. The first drive was a 160 degree drive around the lander. Lander and rover made pictures of each other. Since January 2019 the Yutu-2 rover is driving and exploring the lunar surface successful. The Yutu-2 rover is the record holder for the longest lifetime of a Moon rover since December 2019. Before the record holder was the Soviet rover Lunokhod-1 who survived 322 days on the Moon surface.

The Table shows the driving activities of the Chang’e-4 rover Yutu-2 since landing in January 2019 till End of February 2021:

Moon Day	Date	Details	Distance per Day	Distance total
1	3 – 13 January 2019	Chang’e-4 landed on the moon and Yutu-2 could roll down to the moon surface.	50.00 m	50.00 m
2	30 January – 12 February 2019	All systems of lander and rover of Chang’e-4 mission were nominal.	60.00 m	110.00 m
3	28 February – 13 March 2019	All systems of Yutu-2 and Chang’e-4 lander was running well.	53 m	163.00 m
4	29 March – 12 April 2019	All systems of lander and rover of Chang’e-4 mission were nominal.	7.92 m	170.92 m
5	28 April – 11 May 2019	The rover Yutu-2 made a geological discovery: It found lunar mantle material.	19.74 m	197.66 m
6	27 May – June 9 2019	Photos of craters made by Yutu-2 rover was released.	22.33 m	219.99 m
7	26 June – 8 July 2019	Yutu-2 made a panorama picture of the moon.	24.88 m	237.87 m
8	25 July – 7 August 2019	Chang’e-4 rover discovered a weird “muddy” structure inside of a fresh new crater. It was melted glass.	33.13 m	271.00 m
9	25 August – 5 September 2019	Yutu-2 was driving West.	13.66 m	284.66 m
10	22 September – 5 October 2019	The small rover inspected some moon regolith and it’s own rover tracks.	5.10 m	289.00 m
11	22 October – 4 November 2019	Yutu-2 systems & payloads were reported to be normal.	29.62 m	318.62 m
12	20 November – 3 December 2019	All systems of Yutu-2 and lander were nominal and the rover was showing it’s tracks in the moon surface.	26.44 m	345.06 m
13	20 December 2019 – 2 January 2020	The Chang’e-4 mission was operating one year on the moon now. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter made a picture of Yutu-2 and Chang’e-4 lander.	12.64 m	357.70 m
14	18 – 31 January 2020	All systems of Yutu-2 were still healthy. The journey was still going to northwest.	9.56 m	367.25 m
15	17 February – 1 March 2020	The small moon rover made multiple pictures of the Moon surface.	32.54 m	399.79 m
16	17 – 31 March 2020	Yutu-2 made a panorama to get a view looking back to the Chang’e-4 lander.	24.67 m	424.45 m
17	16 – 29 April 2020	The rover was still driving northwest and made track pictures. All systems and payloads were operational. A new image shown the horizon from Von Kármán crater.	23.23 m	447.68 m
18	16 – 28 May 2020	Yutu-2 was now 500 days on Moon. Only the upgrade of Chinas’s Deep Space Network for Mars Mission Tianwen-1 stopped its journey.	0.00 m	447.68 m
19	14 – 27 June 2020	Yutu-2 spent the morning to inspect material within a small crater. The crater could containing possible impact melt breccia.	15.58 m	463.26 m
20	14 – 26 July 2020	Yutu-2 was still driving northwest.	27.64 m	490.90 m
21	12 – 25 August 2020	The rover passed a Chinese Mile (500 m).	28.39 m	519.29 m
22	11 – 23 September 2020	A Panoramic picture were made and the rover was driving northwest to two craters.	27.88 m	547.17 m
23	10 – 23 October 2020	Yutu-2 inspected crater Dragon Pool with it’s science payload and the panoramic camera.	18.73 m	565.90 m
24	9 – 22 November 2020	All systems of lander and rover of Chang’e-4 mission were nominal.	23.70 m	589.60 m
25	9 – 21 December 2020	The systems of lander and Yutu-2 rover were nominal.	10.95 m	600.55 m
26	7 – 20 January 2021	Yutu-2 made some panoramic shots around noon and carried out geological detection with the science payload.	27.92 m	628.47 m
27	5 – 18 February 2021	The panorama camera on the rover was taken colored pictures of moon rocks and impact craters	24.15 m	652.62 m
28	5 – 20 March 2021	Yutu-2 drove after a long time more than 30 meters and performed some research at some rocks as well. The Chang’e-5 mission clock passed over 800 earth days.	30.15 m	682.77 m
29	5 – 19 April 2021	China’s moon rover Yutu-2 will continue it’s drive further northwest.	26.10 m	708.87 m
30	4 – 18 May 2021	After Yutu-2 took a break on this Moon day because the Deep Space Antenna in China was used to support the Mars Mission Tianwen-1 and the landing of the Rover Zhurong.	0 m	708.87
31	3 – 17 June 2021	Yutu-2 continued it’s drive further northwest.	29.73 m	738.60 m
32	2 – 16 July 2021	Yutu-2 continued it’s drive further northwest.	30.20 m	708.40 m
33	1 – 15 August 2021	Yutu-2 continued it’s drive further northwest.	30.20 m	799.00 m
34	31 August – 13 September 2021	After the Mars rover Zhurong finished it’s primary mission the focus will be back on the moon and Yutu-2 will get more meters under its wheels. Change’e-4 spent 1000 days on the Moon on 29th September 2021.	40.37 m	839.37 m
35	29 September – 12 October 2021	Less news about Yutu-2 but he drove around 30 meters on this day.	30.63 m	860.00 m
36	28 October – 12 November 2021	The tiny moon rover is now driving in north, northeast direction. During this moon day the rover discovered a hut shaped rock at the moon horizon. This will be now the next target for the upcoming lunar days.	43.20 m	903.20 m
37	29 November – 10 December 2021	Yutu-2 made a record sprint with 62.6 meters during one lunar day. The driving destination is still the “Lunar hut”.	62.6 m	965.80 m
38	27 December 2021 – 10 January 2022	The Yutu-2 rover made another fast sprint to reach the “Lunar hut”. But as expected it is not a artificial moon hut. It is just a rock. The scientists renamed the rock to “Jade rabbit” because it is shaped like a small gracing rabbit.	38.10 m	1,003.90
39	9 February	The Chang’e-4 moon rover inspected a smaller & younger crater on the edge of another 26 m large crater before Chinese New Year. The “Jade rabbit” was also in focus of the science investigations on this moon day. Next to the rabbit shaped rock formation the rover found 2-3 cm large translucent glass spheres. It already discovered smaller glass spheres before.	61.60 m	1,065.50 m
40	23 February – March 9 2022	Yutu-2 spotted a interesting stone formation – called “Dragon Ridge” (龙脊). The scientists decided to drive the next days to this rock to investigate this tiny ridge. The tiny moon rover sent also a photo back which shows the Chang’e-4 lander in the far distance.	46.64 m	1,112.14 m
41	March 26 – 8 April 2022	The moon rover Yutu-2 arrived the “Dragon Ridge” and investigate the rock. After the investigation the rover continued its journey to the northwest.	30.24 m	1,142.38 m
42	27 April – 12 May 2022	It is expected that the moon rover is heading more to the northwest.	~ 30m	~ 1,172 m
43	2 June – 14 June	It is expected that the moon rover is heading to the northwest.	~ 30m	~ 1,202 m
44	25 June – 7 July 2022	It is expected that the moon rover is heading still more to the northwest.	~ 30m	1,239.88 m
45	?	There was no scientific work done because of new calibration of the relay satellite.	0 m	1,239.88 m
46	?	There was no scientific work done because of new calibration of the relay satellite.	0 m	1,239.88 m
47	18 September – 30 September	Continue driving to the northwest.	?	?