Here is my new version of the panorama. I don't know why I didn't see it earlier, but such is the stubbornness of the human mind (or mine anyway). Is that gap real? One dark spot looks like it may be repeated across the gap but I don't see anything else to give me confidence. The really annoying thing is that the original mission team never published a full panorama.

Next - can we reliably identify any of these features in LRO images?

#moon #luna20

The lighting in the 3D view is different from the Luna 20 image which doesn't help. This view is from a lower elevation. The dark foreground spot is the shaded side of a crater just beyond the lander in the previous view. A near horizon slopes down to the left, but in the tilted panorama a similar feature tilts down to the right. Is the whole panorama reversed now? Matching the landscape should be possible but I haven't got it right yet. I don't know anyone else who has tried.

#moon #luna20

Looking north with synthetic Quickmap 3D views makes it clear that the 'northern crater' I had trouble matching with the panorama before I flipped it can in fact be identified. Here it is, about 60 m north of the lander and about 10 m across. Small craters near it match up well to prove it. I am now convinced that the flipped panorama I have shown here is correct.

On to something new tomorrow, a recent moon lander.
#maps #moon #luna20

I had a thread on lunar landing sites a year or so ago, which is included in the 'planetary mapping' PDF linked in the pinned post thanks to @birchbirch. This current thread is an update, so here I am continuing where that thread finished, just leading up to Chang'e 6. Here are 2 maps for context. They show the defined landing area and a backup area further west. A specific landing box was defined within the large landing area later.

#maps #moon #change6

Here I zoom in on the Chang'e 6 landing site. I have done this 4 frame sequence for every landing and crash site which we can identify in LRO images. The second image shows the specific target box in the larger landing area. They landed almost in the middle of it. It looks like a typical mare surface but it's anything but. This was only the second landing on the far side of the Moon and the first sample return.

#maps #moon #change6

We landed! Let's take a look around the Chang'e 6 landing site. The sample return landers only took half a panorama, alas. Here:

https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202406/04/content_WS665ec2d7c6d0868f4e8e7d12.html

are some images including their panorama (second image). My version has a straightened horizon (it's a cylindrical projection). Below is a closeup of hills on the horizon, the rim of Chaffee crater. I will eventually fill the bit at the top where the flag is to maximize the surface view.
#moon #change6

That Chang'e 6 panorama was not the only image from the mission. The spacecraft had multiple cameras to monitor activities throughout surface and orbital operations, but the one which got most attention was on a tiny rover:

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/change-6-surprise-rover

It was dropped off the side of the lander and could operate whichever way up it landed. More details:

https://www.leonarddavid.com/up-close-look-at-chinas-change-6-mini-rover/

That link shows a picture taken by the rover. Quite impressive!

#moon #change6

This video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svW5JNPAD6c

shows the Chang'e 6 sampling process. First a drill, which took a c. 100 cm core. It should have gone to 200 cm but hit a rock. Then a scoop which collected 8 scoops of regolith. Three times the scoop contacted the surface before digging (C1, C2, C3), to calibrate the position of the scoop. Later the data from the contacts was used to measure surface strength. The process was fully automated.
#moon #change6

I am compiling a history of lunar exploration which organizes missions by launch date. For the first time my scheme ran into difficulty his year when Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 were launched on the same Falcon 9. I will look at the Firefly mission first and the ispace mission next as they reached the Moon in that order.

Firefly Aerospace's lander 'Blue Ghost' takes its name from a kind of firefly...
#moon #CLPS #firefly #BGM1

... The Firefly lander originated as the lander called Beresheet or Genesis, flown by the Israeli company SpaceIL in 2019. It crashed. Firefly modified the design and built it in the US to ensure it was eligible for NASA funding. OK, we have a lander - now, where is it going to land?

This CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) mission grew out of studies for a lunar geophysical network which wanted one node in Mare Crisium.

#moon #CLPS #firefly #BGM1

This map starts with 2 sites in Mare Crisium (map A). B and C show the 2 sites. In D several possible locations near the small volcanic hill Mons Latreille are shown, with further details in E, F and G. The site shown in G was chosen for the landing. This site had to be relatively smooth with few rocks, and not in a magnetic anomaly with a stronger magnetic field to suit one of the instruments.

#moon #CLPS #firefly #BGM1

The map of Mare Crisium shows the magnetic anomaly areas which were to be avoided. Also shown is the Luna 23/Luna 24 site and the actual Firefly site.

Next we will start to zoom in on this landing site. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 (BGM1) was also given its own name, Ghost Riders in the Sky. We can hum along as we descend.