PolyU Space Research Overview: Chang'e, Tianwen and Deep-Space Instruments

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) Comprehensive Information Database · Module 04: Research This article focuses on PolyU's most recognisable research calling card: building flight-ready precision instruments for national deep-space missions. PolyU is the only university in Hong Kong to have participated in multiple national space missions, as confirmed by the university's own press releases^※; its instruments have flown on the Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4, Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 lunar missions and the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, completing critical steps in each. Sources are PolyU press releases, the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE) website, China National Space Administration (CNSA) announcements, Xinhua / China Daily reports, and related academic pages; all figures, years and specifications are cited in place. The individuals named are university professors and team leaders whose space achievements are neutral, factual accomplishments; they are recorded by name accordingly. For a full timeline, cross-departmental collaboration, and future missions, see aerospace-program-overview.md; for an in-depth profile of the lunar sampling system, see lunar-sampling-system.md; for the RCDSE institutional profile, see deep-space-exploration-research-centre.md.

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# 1. Two teams, two threads

PolyU's contribution to national space missions can be broadly divided into two complementary strands:

According to PolyU public materials, Professor Yung Kai-leung's full title is "Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering, Chair Professor of Precision Engineering, Associate Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations"^※; he is the central figure in PolyU's space-instrument work.

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# 2. Camera Pointing System (CPS) — Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4

# 2.1 What it is and what it does

The Camera Pointing System (CPS) is mounted on top of the lander and serves as the probe's "swivelling eye": it carries the camera, rotates it through a wide range in the Moon's low-gravity environment, and captures panoramic images of the landing and roving areas while observing the movements of the lunar rover^※; at the same time it enables high-precision three-dimensional terrain modelling^※ for safe rover navigation (per RCDSE).

Note: more granular figures circulate in secondary reporting — "vertical rotation of 120 degrees, horizontal rotation of 350 degrees" and "approximately 85 cm × 27 cm × 16 cm" — but PolyU Milestones and the official RCDSE page confirm only the 2.8 kg mass and the temperature range; to be safe, this article takes the officially confirmed figures as authoritative, and notes the finer dimensional details without asserting them as definitive.

# 2.2 Mission record

According to PolyU materials, the first-generation CPS made its debut on the Chang'e-3 mission in 2013 and operated normally throughout the lunar-surface mission^※; it was subsequently used on the Chang'e-4 mission — the first ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon — which launched successfully on 8 December 2018^※ and landed in early 2019 (per PolyU Milestones). The CPS was developed jointly by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the team led by Professor Yung Kai-leung^※.

The system has since received international recognition: according to RCDSE, the Camera Pointing System was awarded the Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury at the 2022 International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva^※.

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# 3. Surface Sampling and Packing System (SSPS) — Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6

# 3.1 Chang'e-5: nine years to build one instrument

The core objective of the third phase of China's lunar exploration programme was "sample return" — bringing lunar soil back to Earth. The PolyU team took responsibility for developing the instruments for the critical chain of surface sampling, packing, and sealing. According to PolyU press releases, Professor Yung's team was commissioned to develop the system in 2011, a process taking about nine years^※, working with the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST); Chang'e-5 soft-landed on the lunar surface on 1 December 2020^※, after which the system carried out automatic sampling and sealing (per PolyU press release).

Components and specifications of the Surface Sampling and Packing System (SSPS) (per PolyU press release):

# 3.2 Chang'e-6: humanity's first far-side sample return

Four years later, the system flew again — this time with the difficulty ratcheted up, because the target was the far side of the Moon. According to PolyU press releases, the University designed and manufactured an upgraded Surface Sampling and Packing System for the Chang'e-6 mission; Chang'e-6 made its far-side soft landing on 2 June 2024 (mission documents record the soft landing as completed on 3 June)^※, and carried out fully automatic surface sampling and packing — achieving the first-ever sampling of the far side of the Moon in human history (per PolyU press release). PolyU emphasises that the system uses a fully automatic multi-point sampling-and-packing mechanism, distinct from the drilling or manual-digging approaches used by other countries; the key upgrade was ensuring that sampling could be completed within the more constrained time window on the far side (per PolyU press release). PolyU is the only university in Hong Kong to have its own independently developed key payload aboard Chang'e-6^※ (per PolyU press release).

# 3.3 World-class recognition: the IAF World Space Award

According to PolyU press releases, the Chang'e-6 team (led by the China National Space Administration) was awarded the 2025 "World Space Award" by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) for the far-side sampling achievement, presented on 3 October 2025 at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney^※; the Surface Sampling and Packing System developed by PolyU was Hong Kong's contribution (per PolyU press release). At the same congress, PolyU also became the first institution of higher education in China and East Asia to receive the IAF "Excellence in 3G+ Diversity Award"^※ (per PolyU press release).

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# 4. Mars Landing Surveillance Camera — Tianwen-1

# 4.1 The Mars camera

China's first independent Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, launched from Wenchang on 23 July 2020; the lander and the "Zhurong" rover touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia on Mars on 15 May 2021^※, marking China's first landing on a planet other than Earth (per PolyU press release and Xinhua).

According to PolyU press releases, Professor Yung Kai-leung's team was invited by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) to develop the Mars Landing Surveillance Camera (火星相机 for short), mounted on the upper exterior of the landing platform^※, to monitor the landing status, the surrounding environment, and the movement of the "Zhurong" rover relative to the deployment of the solar panels and antenna (per PolyU press release).

Mars Landing Surveillance Camera specifications (per PolyU press release):

# 4.2 Professor Wu Bo's team: selecting the Mars landing zone

The other PolyU strand on Tianwen-1 was landing-site selection. According to PolyU press releases, the team of Professor Wu Bo from the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics conducted global-scale Martian topographic analysis and assessment from 2017 to 2020, narrowing the field to three candidate landing zones and ultimately selecting a site in the southern Utopia Planitia^※; using artificial intelligence techniques, the team analysed more than 670,000 impact craters, over 2 million rocks, and hundreds of volcanic cones, with an accuracy of approximately 85%^※ (per PolyU press release).

Wu Bo's methodology had already proven itself on Chang'e-4: according to public academic and institutional sources, his team produced a high-precision topographic model of the Chang'e-4 landing zone (around the Von Kármán crater), integrating Chang'e-2 imagery with data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) to produce a digital terrain model of the Von Kármán crater at approximately 30-metre spatial resolution^※ (per the paper in Science China Information Sciences), providing the topographic support for the far-side landing.

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# 5. The wider pedigree of Professor Yung Kai-leung's space instruments

Professor Yung's space résumé did not begin with Chang'e. According to PolyU academic profiles / RCDSE materials, his team had already developed instruments for a number of domestic and international deep-space missions:

According to PolyU's academic profile page, Professor Yung Kai-leung is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and serves on the expert groups for Phase III of the national lunar exploration programme and the Mars sample-return mission^※; he has been awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) (per PolyU academic profile).

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# 6. The Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE) and recent extensions

The instrument-development work described above is now consolidated under the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE), directed by Professor Yung Kai-leung; the Centre sits within PolyU's interdisciplinary research institute (PAIR) system (for the institutional history, see institutes-and-labs.md).

PolyU's space research has continued to expand in recent years: according to PolyU and media reports, the University has conducted low-Earth-orbit (LEO) in-orbit material experiments — its first in-orbit materials experiment platform completed catalyst-material experiments in low Earth orbit^※ (per EurekAlert); and has extended its capabilities into areas such as planetary remote sensing, spacecraft fire suppression, advanced spacesuit design, and AI-based satellite imagery geolocation (per PolyU press releases). As for satellite positioning fields such as the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, relevant PolyU departments have academic research output in positioning and navigation (e.g. studies of BDS signal observation characteristics, available in PolyU's institutional repository) — this is routine academic research, different in nature from the flagship "instruments that fly on missions" covered here, and this article does not conflate or overstate the two.

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