Overview of the Latest Scientific Achievements of Chang'E-4 Mission of China's Lunar Exploration Project

On 3 January 2019, the Chang’E-4 probe successfully landed in the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon. On 4 January, the Yutu-2 rover was successfully separated from the lander and the scientific payloads were powered on to conduct scientific exploration. It was the first time that manmade probe achieved soft landing and roving on the far side of the Moon. Based on the data obtained by scientific payloads on the Chang’E-4, the research team obtained geological information such as landing area topography,structure and composition; demonstrated the existence of deep materials—mainly olivine and low-calcium pyroxene in the South Pole-Aitken Basin; achieved high-precision imaging of the layered structure of lunar subsurface in the roving area; discovered carbonaceous spheroidal meteorite residues and impact glass; preliminarily revealed the geological evolutionary history of the South Pole-Aitken Basin; for the first time, obtained information of the radiation dose of energetic particles at the lunar surface and the structure of the lunar neutral atomic energy spectrum;discovered the lunar mini-magnetosphere and contributed new knowledge of the radiation hazards at the lunar surface. This article summarizes the latest scientific achievement from the Chang’E-4 mission over the past three years.