Lunar South Polar Landing Area Selection Constrained by Illumination Conditions and Slopes

Abstract

Lunar water and other volatiles in permanently shadowed regions are not only key elements to studying the early history of the Moon and solar system, but also important sources for in-situ resource utilization for future lunar base construction. In this study, we compute the illumination rate of 2026 and slopes within a 15 × 15 km area near the lunar south pole based on the 20 m/pixel digital terrain model (DEM). We propose to use the illumination rate and slope to constrain landing area selection based on a finer map meshing within the study area and find that the distribution of potential landing areas varies with different constraints. We also extend the study area to polar regions ($ > 88.5^{\circ} $) based on the 60 m/pixel illumination rate map and DEM data. The result shows that there are 8 potential landing areas including three at the Shackleton crater rim, two at the de Gerlache crater rim, two at the ridge between the former two craters, and one at the ridge between the Shackleton and Slater craters. Our study provides candidates for future polar landing missions and a method for landing site selection from higher DEM data.

Keywords

lunar south pole / illumination conditions / slope / landing area selection / Shackleton crater