3D print Von Kármán crater, the Chang'e 4 landing site
The far side of the Moon on one print: the flat floor of Von Kármán crater where Chang'e 4 landed, its walls and the craters around it, from elevation data measured by lunar orbiters.
Where it is 44.45°S 176.25°E The Moon · far side
- Diameter
- 186 km (116 mi)
- Chang'e 4 landed
- January 3, 2019
- Landing site
- Statio Tianhe, 45.46°S, 177.59°E
- Named for
- Theodore von Kármán (1881-1963)
234 by 220 km of the Moon, 160 mm across
About Von Kármán crater
Von Kármán is a crater 186 km (116 mi) across on the far side of the Moon, inside the South Pole-Aitken basin, the Moon's largest basin at about 2,500 km (1,550 mi) across. Its floor is a smooth lava plain, and its west wall rises more than 3,000 m (9,850 ft) above it.
China's Chang'e 4 made the first soft landing on the far side here on January 3, 2019, talking to Earth through the Queqiao relay satellite. Its Yutu-2 rover drove off soon after and had covered at least 502 m by October 2020. The crater is named for the aeronautical scientist Theodore von Kármán.
Sources: IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Von Kármán, IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Statio Tianhe, LROC: Von Kármán crater, LROC: Chang'e 4, LROC: Yutu-2 tracks, LROC: South Pole-Aitken basin
