Geologic context and potential EVA targets at the lunar south pole

The Artemis human landing system concept of operations is initially limited to two astronauts who land "on the lunar south pole" and will not exceed a surface stay of 6.5 days near the south pole (NASA, 2019a). Potentially, five extravehicular activities (EVAs) are possible in that interva...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in Space Research
Main Authors: Gawronska, Aleksandra, Barrett, Natasha, Boazman, Sarah, Gilmour, Cosette, Halim, Samuel, Harish, McCanaan, Kathryn, Satyakumar, Animireddi V., Shah, Jahnavi, Meyer, Heather M., Kring, David A. (David Allen), orcid:0000-0002-6888-9868, orcid:0000-0003-3150-6787, orcid:0000-0002-3440-6282, orcid:0000-0002-4964-1138, orcid:0000-0002-4978-530X
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11753/1641
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2020.05.035
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Summary:The Artemis human landing system concept of operations is initially limited to two astronauts who land "on the lunar south pole" and will not exceed a surface stay of 6.5 days near the south pole (NASA, 2019a). Potentially, five extravehicular activities (EVAs) are possible in that interval (NASA, 2019b). Landing, traverses by crew and supporting robotic assets, and targeted sampling of the region require pre-mission geologic assessments of the lunar south pole. Here, we provide an initial geologic assessment of the lunar south pole, Shackleton crater, and the geology that may be accessible in that type of short duration surface stay.