Proposals for Sites Selection of Soft Landing on Lunar South Polar Region

Abstract

Human-beings have achieved lunar soft-landing on the surface of mid or low latitude regions. However no one has realized the exploration mission for the polar regions，especially for the south polar region，which attracts most attention because of its high scientific and technological value. In this article，the environment of lunar south polar region is analyzed，including the temperature condition，topography，illumination condition and earth visibility. Different from the regions with mid or low latitude，the temperature for lunar south polar region is very low（from 100 K to 160 K）. The topography is more complicated （more craters，greater slope，scattered stones）. The sun elevation angle is very small（which is between?1.54° and 1.54° for the south pole） and there are more shadows because of the high mountains. And there are long durations of earth-invisibility. All these environment conditions will much affect the lunar south polar region soft landing mission. According to the analysis of lunar south polar environment， some engineering suggestions for the lunar south polar region soft landing mission are proposed，which will provide reference for the implement of engineering .

Keywords

temperature / topography / illumination / earth-visibility / soft landing

References

[1] WATSON K,MURRAY B C,BROWN H. The behavior of volatiles on the lunar surface[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research,1961,66(9):3033-3045
[2] ARNOLD J R. Ice in the lunar polar regions[J]. Journal of Geophysics Research Solid-Earth,1979,84(B10):5659-5668
[3] MAZARICO E,NEUMANN G A,SMITH D E,et al. Illumination conditions of the lunar polar regions using LOLA topography[J]. Icarus,2011,211(2):1066-1081
[4] NODA H,ARAKI H,GOOSSENS S. Illumination conditions at the lunar polar regions by KAGUYA(SELENE)laser altimeter[J]. Geophysical Resarch Letters,2008,35(24):1-5
[5] ROSA D D,BUSSEY B,CAHILL J T. Characterisation of potential landing sites for the European Space Agency’s Lunar lander project[J]. Planetary and Space Science,2012,74(1):224-246
[6] MELOSH H J. Impact cratering：a geologic process[M]. Oxford：Oxford University Press，1989.
[7] ROSIEK M R. Lunar south pole digital elevation models from Lunar reconnaissance orbiter narrow angel camera[C]//44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Flagstaff：[s.n.]，2013.
[8] 李雄耀,王世杰,程安云. 月表有效太阳辐照度实时模型[J]. 地球物理学报,2008,51(1):25-30
LI X Y,WANG S J,CHENG A Y. A lunar surface effective solar irradiance real-time model[J]. Chinese Journal of Geophysics,2008,51(1):25-30
[9] PAIGE D A,SIEGLER M A,ZHANG J A. Diviner lunar radiometer observations of cold traps in the Moon’s south polar region[J]. Science,2010,330(6003):479-482
[10] HAYNE O P,HENDRIX A,SEFTON-NASH E,et al. Evidence for exposed water ice in the Moon’s south polar regions from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ultraviolet albedo and temperature measurements[J]. Icarus,2015(255):58-69