Exploring the Schrödinger and South Pole-Aitken Basins on the Lunar Farside

The Moon remains largely unexplored. No traverses or sampling have occurred around either lunar pole, nor anywhere on the lunar farside. Intriguingly, the few samples returned to Earth from the nearside and to have fallen as meteorites indicate the Moon is probably the best and most accessible place in the Solar System to deduce processes associated with planetary accretion, differentiation, formation of primitive planetary crust, and impact modification of that crust. There is broad international consensus that exploration of the Moon can address fundamentally important scientific questions. One of the most comprehensive studies of lunar science objectives was produced by the US National Research Council (NRC) of The National Academies (2007). The report outlined eight scientific concepts and thirty-five prioritized investigations. While that study was conducted at the request of NASA, there is broad international support for those objectives (e.g., Crawford et al. 2012). Beginning in 2008, a series of studies were conducted to determine the locations on the lunar surface where each of those investigations could be addressed. The final summary of those studies (Kring and Durda 2012) revealed that the majority of objectives could be addressed within the South Pole-Aitken basin. Furthermore, the Schrödinger basin, which is within the South Pole-Aitken basin, is the best location anywhere on the Moon for addressing the highest priority and largest number of objectives. The study also found that Amundsen crater, also within the South Pole-Aitken basin, may be a better landing site than the often discussed Shackleton crater to study polar volatiles. References: National Research Council (NRC): The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon, The National Academies Press, 2007. Crawford, I.A., Anand, M., Cockell, C.S., Falcke, H., Green, D.A., Jaumann, R., and Wieczorek, M.A.: Back to the Moon: The scientific rationale for resuming lunar surface exploration, Planetary & Space Science, Vol. 74, pp. 3-14, 2012. Kring, D.A. and Durda, D.D. (editors): A Global Lunar Landing Site Study to Provide the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon, Lunar and Planetary Insitute, Contribution No. 1694, 2012.