Lunar Polar Landing Sites
Abstract
An important step for a scientific mission is to assess on where the mission should be conducted. This study on landing site selection focuses on a mission to the poles of the Moon where an in-situ mission should be conducted to answer the questions with respect to volatiles and ices. The European interest for a mission to the poles of the Moon is presented in the mission concept called Heracles. This mission would be a tele-operated, sample return mission where astronauts will controlling a rover from an Orion capsule in cislunar orbit. The primary selection of landing sites was based on the scientific interest of areas near the poles. The maximum temperature map from Diviner was used to select sites where CO^2¬ should always be stable. This means that the maximum temperature is lower than 54K which is the sublimation temperature for CO^2¬ in lunar atmospheric pressure. Around these areas 14 potential regions of interest were selected. Further selection was based on the epoch of the surface in these regions of interest. It was thought that it would be of high scientific value if sites are sampled which have another epoch than already sampled by one of the Apollo or Luna missions. Only 6 sites on both North as South Pole could contain stable CO^2 ¬and were older than (Pre-)Necterian. Before a landing site and rover traverse was planned these six sites were compared on their accessibility of the areas which could contain stable CO^2. It was assumed that slope lower than 20^o is doable to rove. Eventually Amundsen and Rozhdestvenskiy West were selected as regions of interest. Assumptions for selecting landing sites was that area should have a slope lower than 5^o, a diameter of 1km, in partial illuminated area, and should not be isolated but inside an area which is in previous steps marked as accessible area to rove. By using multiple tools in ArcGIS it is possible to present the area's which were marked as potential landing sites. The closest potential landing site to a PSR was chosen and used to do an automatic calculation for a rover traverse where the slope was assumed to be the limiting factor. Between the landing site and PSR a site of interest was chosen where temperature differences (Tmax-Tmin) is higher than 150K to study volatile migration processes. Eventually it is concluded that Amundsen is preferred above Rozhdestvesnkiy West because its flatter crater ground makes it easier to select landing sites. It contains more areas where volatile migration processes can studied and it is easier to rove.
- Publication:
-
41st COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016cosp...41E.932K