Chang'e 7 Lunar Lander Optical Camera-Telescope: Optical Astronomy from the Moon

Quentin Andrew Parker; Partha Sarathi Pal; Junhao Chen; Meng Su; SeyedAbdolreza Sadjadi; Andreas Ritter; Andy C. T. Kong; Zhengjie Tian; Haoyang Yuan; Suijian Xue; Steve Durst

arXiv · 2608.20806

Chang'e 7 Lunar Lander Optical Camera-Telescope: Optical Astronomy from the Moon

Quentin Andrew Parker·Partha Sarathi Pal·Junhao Chen·Meng Su·SeyedAbdolreza Sadjadi·Andreas Ritter·Andy C. T. Kong·Zhengjie Tian·Haoyang Yuan·Suijian Xue·Steve Durst

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Abstract

We report the design and manufacture of a new, lightweight, wide-field, optical camera-telescope on board the Chang'e 7 lunar mission (launched in August 2026 and due for lunar touchdown in late November 2026). The camera is capable of static, panchromatic imagery within a $420-696~nm$ optical wavelength range. The camera was designed and built under the small lunar astronomy observation station program of the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) as a collaboration between the International Lunar Observatory Association of Hawaii (ILOA), the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electricity (BISME). The camera has been built to meet science goals of the mission for sustainable astronomical operation over a large range of temperatures from the Moon's south pole. We report on the design and ground based preliminary performance, together with an analysis of the camera's simulated output to indicate the range of astronomical observations possible from the lunar surface given the camera's limited sensitivity and angular resolution given the modest aperture and wide field of view.

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Quentin Andrew Parker, Partha Sarathi Pal, Junhao Chen, Meng Su, SeyedAbdolreza Sadjadi, Andreas Ritter, Andy C. T. Kong, Zhengjie Tian, Haoyang Yuan, Suijian Xue, Steve Durst. 2026-08-21. Chang'e 7 Lunar Lander Optical Camera-Telescope: Optical Astronomy from the Moon. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20806

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