TARGET MOON: LOOKING FOR LANDING SPOTS
By Leonard David

Take the well-known phrase from the real estate biz - but add in a dash of celestial seasoning: location, location, location.

That is exactly what NASA exploration planners and scientists are considering when mapping out the future whereabouts of an outpost on the Moon. NASA recently obtained the highest resolution terrain mapping to date of the Moon’s rugged south polar region. That locale is being considered as a candidate landing spot, not only for robotic and human missions, but as an ideal site to place a solar-powered lunar base.

Thanks to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone Solar System Radar facilities in Mojave, California, enhanced radar imagery of the lunar south pole has been collected. The results are welcomed by Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

“We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors two and a half times deeper than the Grand Canyon. There are challenges that come with such rugged terrain, and these data will be an invaluable tool for advance planning of lunar missions,” he reports.

The target for intensive study at the Moon’s south pole is Shackleton Crater, a feature roughly 12 miles (19 kilometers) in diameter. It is on the crater’s rim that NASA notionally views as an ideal location for an outpost – a literal training ground for learning how to utilize the Moon’s natural resources to sustain a human presence, carry out scientific studies, bolster participation from other spacefaring nations, as well as to help sharpen the tools and techniques for sojourning onward to Mars.

Early NASA thinking envisions a lunar outpost being built in incremental steps, starting with four-person crews making several seven-day visits. The first mission would begin by 2020, with the base growing over time, beefed up with more power, mobility rovers and living quarters.

Peak of Eternal Light

Shackleton Crater is named after Ernest Shackleton, a noted explorer of the Antarctic. Indeed, this lunar setting is an explorer’s paradise. Peaks along the crater rim are exposed to near constant sunlight, while the crater’s interior is permanently in shadow. Having an outpost adjacent to a permanently dark, super-cold region allows access to possible water ice frozen there, or other resources called “polar volatiles” that can be processed to create life-sustaining oxygen and water, even rocket fuel.

Paul Spudis, a leading lunar scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas is carefully studying Shackleton Crater. He specializes in planetary geology and remote sensing.
“On Shackleton, we have found that an area near it, about six miles (10 kilometers) away from the rim, is lit 100-percent of the day during southern summer. We had previously known that it was lit more than 70-percent of the day during southern winter,” Spudis explains. “So right now, it is the piece of the Moon that comes closest to the ‘Peak of Eternal Light’ designation.”

Spudis told Coalition News: “We also have found out that Shackleton is considerably older than previously thought. It’s more like 3.5 billion years, rather than the 1 billion to 2 billion years as previously believed. This means that it has had more time to accumulate polar volatiles, from whatever source. It also implies that it is not as rocky and steep as would be a younger, fresher crater.”
Furthermore, the new Goldstone radar data supports the view that there are no serious obstacles to traversing and using the terrain near the south pole.

But there is more work to do.

Observations from Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter -- now circling the Moon -- as well as India’s Chandrayaan-1 and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to be launched by year’s end, will help chart with ever-greater clarity future robotic and human landing sites on the Moon.

Related Links

http://www.spudislunarresources.com/Images_Maps/S%20polar%20base%20layout.jpg
Layout of the land at Shackleton Crater. This is NASA’s notional site to locate an outpost on the Moon.
Credit: NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/214500main_contours.jpg
New radar imagery of the Moon’s Shackleton Crater provides valuable data in defining elevation and slopes of this area – a possible location for a future lunar outpost.
Credit: NASA/JPL
 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/moon/20080227/surface-browse.jpg
The south polar region of the Moon is being charted to determine amount of illumination from the Sun. That information helps map out the topography of the area to enable safe landings of future robotic and human missions.

Credit: NASA/JPL

http://www.nasa.gov/mov/214261main_Lunar_Landing_Anim_4_Web.mov
Tighten your seat belts! This animation utilizes the latest terrain data of the Moon’s south pole region to show what a future lunar landing crew can expect to see during approach and touchdown on the rim of Shackleton Crater.

Credit: NASA