Key Questions in Planetary Science to be Addressed by Exploration of a Lunar Magnetic Anomaly: The Lunar Compass Rover Discovery Mission Concept
Abstract
Areas of magnetized crustal rocks on the Moon, known as magnetic anomalies, represent unique environments that can be employed as natural laboratories for the investigation of a wide range of high-priority questions in planetary science. The magnetic regions are associated with lunar swirls, unusual high-reflectance markings. The Lunar Compass mission, a Discovery-class robotic rover that will explore a nearside magnetic region and swirl, will answer key outstanding questions in planetary science over a wide range of topics: (1) Planetary magnetism: Why is magnetized crust found on a body that today lacks a global dynamo field? Is the magnetic source related to a magnetized intrusion, a magnetized deposit of basin ejecta, or could it have formed through plasma effects due to a comet impact? (2) Space plasma physics: What are the details of the plasma interactions with the magnetic field to form a standoff region? What are the fluxes of the particles that actually reach the surface by energy and species? (3) Planetary geology: What are the nature and origin of lunar swirls? Are they ancient or recent? Does levitated dust or cometary material modify the surface of airless bodies? (4) Space weathering: What are the roles and relative importance of ion and micrometeoroid bombardment in producing a mature regolith? How does space weathering proceed in an area where solar-wind flux may be attenuated but micrometeoroid bombardment continues? (5) Lunar water cycle: How does the hydroxyl absorption feature at 2.82 um vary with location, magnetic field strength, and the flux of solar-wind protons reaching the surface? Does the hydroxyl signature vary among different soil constituents?
Potential instruments on Lunar Compass include a vector magnetometer, an ion and electron spectrometer, a mast-mounted multispectral camera; a UV-VNIR-SWIR spectrometer; a microscopic spectral imager; an XRF or APXS; a Mössbauer spectrometer, an electric field probe, a dust detector, and a traverse gravimeter. A laser retroreflector would be useful for general lunar geodetic studies, and many of the measurements would also be relevant to selected Strategic Knowledge Gaps that have been identified for human exploration.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P54D..07B
- Keywords:
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- 6297 Instruments and techniques;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS