Analysis of Lava Tubes and Skylights in the Lunar Exploration Context
Abstract
The past and current scientific activities related to the future robotic and human exploration of the Moon have stressed the importance of lava tubes as convenient settlements in an inhospitable planet, providing a natural shielding to a variety of natural hazards with minimizing costs of the construction of manned bases. The detection of lava tubes could be favoured by the presence of skylights, which also represent a way to access to these underground structures. In this context, we analyze one of the proposed mechanism of skylights formation, that is random impacts craters, by comparing cratergeometry argumentations ([11]) with numerical modelling outcomes.
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress 2012
- Pub Date:
- September 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012epsc.conf..632M