Abstract: Soft landing on the far side of the moon involves complex terrain and requires a higher level of hazard avoidance capability than landing on the near side of the moon. Restricted by propellant and other factors, the Chang’e-6 lander adopt a different method from Chang’e-4 that raises the hazard avoidance altitude to expend its hazard avoidance capability. Instead, it combines part of the “pinpoint” landing technology with hazard-avoidance. The pinpoint landing method helps the lander avoid known large-size hazards through unidirectional range control in the main braking phase. And the rough-fine-relay hazard-avoidance strategy identifies and avoids small-size hazards unknown in advance during the flight process below the approach phase to ultimately realize a safe soft landing. The hazard avoidance scheme adopted by Chang’e-6 is a technological upgrade compared with the previous Chang’e series landers, and was technologically verified in advance for the subsequent realization of a full-fledged pinpoint landing.

Key words: Chang’e-6, soft landing, far side of moon, hazard avoidance, range control