This paper presents a review of lunar exploration missions and techniques

as well as the products of lunar mapping using remote sensing data. Since 1958

126 lunar exploration missions have been carried out

and 70 of these missions were successful. Lunar exploration missions can be broadly classified into unmanned and manned missions

with unmanned probes mainly using an orbiter

a lander

and arover. Lunar surface mapping using remote sensing data is one of the fundamental tasks in these missions and is critical to support other science or engineering tasks. Lunar mapping is more challenging and difficult compared with Earth mapping because orbit and attitude determination is of relatively low accuracy

a global navigation satellite system is lacking

obtaining ground truth for geometric and radiometric calibration is difficult

and the lunar surface is a desolated environment with poor image texture. A vast amount of remote sensing data have been acquired from successful missions. The two primary data sources for lunar mapping are orbital optical images and laser altimeter data. Among the optical images

the Chang’E-2 stereo images cover the entire moon surface with 7m resolution

and the narrow-angle images of the lunar reconnaissance orbiter camera offer the highest spatial resolution of up to 0.5 m but with limited coverage. Among the laser altimeter data

the lunar orbiter laser altimeter data of the lunar reconnaissance orbiter show the highest precision and density. Orbital remote sensing data provide facilitate global and regional mapping with medium and high resolutions

where slander and rover images offer the highest resolution（up to millimeter level） for the detailed mapping of the landing site and traversing area. Photogrammetric techniques

including geometric sensor modeling

image block adjustment

stereo image matching

space intersection for 3D position computation

and DEM and orthophoto generation

have been developed by the planetary mapping community for lunar mapping from orbiter

lander

and rover images. The rigorous sensor models of orbital images are usually established by collinearity equations with interior and exterior orientation parameters. Bundle adjustment is a rigorous block adjustment method that simultaneously solves exterior orientation parameters and 3D ground points with high accuracy and consistency. A generic geometric model

with a rational function model as the representative

has been investigated and used in lunar mapping. Unlike rigorous sensor models

rational function models are simple and independent of sensors. It is particularly advantageous for integrated mapping using multiple images from the same orbiter or different orbiters. Global image mosaics and global DEM have been produced by mission teams with resolutions ranging from tens to hundreds of meters.Sub-meter to meter resolution regional maps have been produced for scientific investigation orthe selection of landing sites. Centimeter resolution maps have been generated from lander or rover images to support in-situ investigations and rover traverse planning at landing sites. Some future research directions of lunar mapping using remote sensing data are discussed at the end of the paper

along with the construction of a new-generation lunar global control network using the newly acquired multi-mission data

fine-resolution lunar mapping using multi-mission multi-coverage images

automated processing of huge amount of data

lunar mapping standards

data sharing

and international cooperation.