The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites
Transformative lunar science will be driven by the accessibility, recovery, and return to Earth of geological specimens. Isolated boulders, rock exposures, and rocky craters at the lunar south pole all provide opportunities for geologic characterization and sampling of the lunar crust. Here, we pres...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/596672 2023-05-15T18:21:50+02:00 The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites Boazman, Sarah. J. Shah, Jahnavi Harish Gawronska, Aleksandra J. Halim, Samuel H. Satyakumar, Animireddi V. Gilmour, Cosette M. Bickel, Valentin Barrett, Natasha Kring, David A. 2022-12-22 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/596672 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 en eng IOP Publishing info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3847/PSJ/aca590 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000913037300001 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/596672 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY The Planetary Science Journal, 3 (12) info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/596672 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/aca590 2023-02-13T01:19:06Z Transformative lunar science will be driven by the accessibility, recovery, and return to Earth of geological specimens. Isolated boulders, rock exposures, and rocky craters at the lunar south pole all provide opportunities for geologic characterization and sampling of the lunar crust. Here, we present the results of orbital geological mapping of the region surrounding the south pole using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images (0.5–2 m pixel−1). We mapped the distribution of isolated boulders (86,896), rocky craters (3556), and rock exposures (7553) around potential Artemis landing sites 001 and 004 (NASA 2020), which are within or near one of the Artemis III candidate landing regions. We found that boulder abundance decreases with increasing distance from the rim of Shackleton crater. From that correlation, we infer that most of the boulders and rock exposures near Shackleton were deposited as ejecta by the Shackleton impact, and by later the reworking of that material during smaller impact events. We additionally assessed the accessibility of the mapped features, and documented geologic targets located on shallow (<15°) slopes, including those on the Shackleton crater rim and on the "Connecting Ridge" between Shackleton and Henson crater. Such targets could be sampled by a future mission to the lunar south pole region. Our catalog of mapped features is made available to the lunar community. ISSN:2632-3338 Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole ETH Zürich Research Collection Shackleton South Pole Henson ENVELOPE(-168.350,-168.350,-84.833,-84.833) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ETH Zürich Research Collection |
op_collection_id |
ftethz |
language |
English |
description |
Transformative lunar science will be driven by the accessibility, recovery, and return to Earth of geological specimens. Isolated boulders, rock exposures, and rocky craters at the lunar south pole all provide opportunities for geologic characterization and sampling of the lunar crust. Here, we present the results of orbital geological mapping of the region surrounding the south pole using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images (0.5–2 m pixel−1). We mapped the distribution of isolated boulders (86,896), rocky craters (3556), and rock exposures (7553) around potential Artemis landing sites 001 and 004 (NASA 2020), which are within or near one of the Artemis III candidate landing regions. We found that boulder abundance decreases with increasing distance from the rim of Shackleton crater. From that correlation, we infer that most of the boulders and rock exposures near Shackleton were deposited as ejecta by the Shackleton impact, and by later the reworking of that material during smaller impact events. We additionally assessed the accessibility of the mapped features, and documented geologic targets located on shallow (<15°) slopes, including those on the Shackleton crater rim and on the "Connecting Ridge" between Shackleton and Henson crater. Such targets could be sampled by a future mission to the lunar south pole region. Our catalog of mapped features is made available to the lunar community. ISSN:2632-3338 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Boazman, Sarah. J. Shah, Jahnavi Harish Gawronska, Aleksandra J. Halim, Samuel H. Satyakumar, Animireddi V. Gilmour, Cosette M. Bickel, Valentin Barrett, Natasha Kring, David A. |
spellingShingle |
Boazman, Sarah. J. Shah, Jahnavi Harish Gawronska, Aleksandra J. Halim, Samuel H. Satyakumar, Animireddi V. Gilmour, Cosette M. Bickel, Valentin Barrett, Natasha Kring, David A. The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
author_facet |
Boazman, Sarah. J. Shah, Jahnavi Harish Gawronska, Aleksandra J. Halim, Samuel H. Satyakumar, Animireddi V. Gilmour, Cosette M. Bickel, Valentin Barrett, Natasha Kring, David A. |
author_sort |
Boazman, Sarah. J. |
title |
The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
title_short |
The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
title_full |
The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
title_fullStr |
The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Distribution and Accessibility of Geologic Targets near the Lunar South Pole and Candidate Artemis Landing Sites |
title_sort |
distribution and accessibility of geologic targets near the lunar south pole and candidate artemis landing sites |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/596672 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-168.350,-168.350,-84.833,-84.833) |
geographic |
Shackleton South Pole Henson |
geographic_facet |
Shackleton South Pole Henson |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
The Planetary Science Journal, 3 (12) |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3847/PSJ/aca590 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000913037300001 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/596672 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/596672 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000596672 https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/aca590 |
_version_ |
1766201156421287936 |