China has released the most detailed geological map of the Moon, a project which has been the lifelong goal of geochemist Ouyang Ziyuan, the inspiration for and the chief designer of the Chinese Chang’e lunar exploration program. Decades before China made the decision to launch a manned space program with an eye on the Moon, Ouyang was gathering data from previous lunar missions of both the U.S. and Russia.
CCTV reports that the map is on a scale of 1:2.5 million. “Based on the data of China’s Chang’e lunar project and other international lunar exploration research, as well as through the study of strata, morphology, composition, structure and geological age of the Moon’s surface, the team has proposed and established a new lunar geological chronology,” referring to “The 1:2,500,000-Scale Geologic Map of the Global Moon,” published in the May issue of Science Bulletin, by lead author Jinzhu Ji, a lecturer at School of Mining, Inner Mongolia University of Technology and visiting scholar at Center for Lunar and Planetary Science, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
