Nomenclature for lunar features at the Chang’e-3 landing site

Abstract

Nomenclatures for lunar features always accompany the progresses of human lunar exploration, which has an important dual meaning in culture and science. The naming of lunar features not only can commemorate the outstanding contributions of academics, masters in various fields, and popularize the traditional cultures of ethnic groups all over the world, but also have a critical function of providing accurate indicative information on features with special morphology, origin, nature and scientific value. However, nomenclature for features at the Chang’e-3 landing site, which has a more arbitrary form without many constrains posed by a uniformed system, is unlike the features for other morphological units. This paper originated from the actual needs for the description of scientific exploration activities, interpretation of scientific research and dissemination of scientific results. Some prominent morphological units with great scientific importance and identification purpose were chosen from the images taken by the terrain camera, panorama cameras and landing camera onboard the Chang’e lander and Yutu rover. A nomenclature system was established under the three enclosures, four quadrants and twenty-eight lunar lodges’ system of the Chinese ancient sky division method. Finally, a standard feature names set was published after some necessary approval procedures by the International Astronomical Union.