Chunlai Li

Papers

Total Citations

273

H-Index

About

As a leading figure in China’s lunar and deep-space exploration, Chunlai Li has fundamentally shaped our understanding of the Moon through his pivotal role in the Chang’E program. His research centers on planetary science, remote sensing, and the photogrammetric processing of extraterrestrial imagery. Li’s major contributions include orchestrating the scientific payloads for multiple Chang’E missions and developing the global adjustment method for processing Chang’E-2 stereo images, a technique that produced the highest-resolution global lunar map at the time. His landmark overview of China’s lunar exploration program, published in *Science*, has garnered over 240 citations, serving as a definitive roadmap for the field. Li’s work has directly enabled the precise landing site selection for Chang’E-3 and Chang’E-4, and his leadership in analyzing returned samples from Chang’E-5 has provided unprecedented insights into lunar volcanism and the Moon’s thermal history. With a career spanning from orbital mapping to sample return science, Li stands as a central architect of modern lunar exploration.