Cratering Records in the Chang'e‐5 Mare Unit: Filling the “Age Gap” of the Lunar Crater Chronology and Preparation for Its Recalibration

Qiao, Lingling; Xu, Lihu; Yang, Yazhou; Xie, Minggang; Chen, Jian; Fang, Kun; Ling, Zongcheng

doi:10.1029/2021gl095132

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Regionally, the Chang'e‐5 landing area is located at the central portion of a very extensive basaltic mare unit in the western nearside of the Moon (Figure 2d). This mare unit spreads across ∼35,000 km 2 and is among the youngest lunar maria (Hiesinger et al., 2011; Qian, Xiao, Head, van der Bogert et al., 2021; Qiao, Xu et al., 2021). The most prominent geological feature in the Chang'e‐5 mare unit is the sinuous rille Rima Sharp which lies ∼17 km east of the landing site (Figure 2d).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive Lunar Surface Disturbance at the Chang'e‐5 Mission Landing Site: Implications for Future Lunar Base Design and Construction

Qiao

Hess

et al. 2023

JGR Planets

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Lunar surface disturbances by spacecraft engine jets are of particular concern in the current new phase of lunar exploration, when dozens of landing missions and permanent bases are being planned. Some of these exploration efforts will involve multiple landings and liftoffs around the same lunar site; thus, it is essential to evaluate their effect on astronauts and assets on the lunar surface. Here, we assess the surface disturbances during the Chang'e‐5 landing and liftoff procedures through the photometric analysis of high‐resolution multi‐temporal surface and orbital images. Centimeter‐scale surface images reveal a four‐stage evolution of the landing plume impingement over a period of ∼50 s, which involves phenomena such as dust devils and streaks, and displacement of cobbles. Temporal‐ratio calculation of orbital images (including one acquired between landing and liftoff) enables the first direct observation of ascent plume effects. The ascent blast zone consists of two separated sub‐areas (∼3,400 km2 in total), which is nearly twice larger than that of the landing blast zone. The final disturbed surface is characterized by a central main zone (∼2,300 m2) surrounded by a marginal diffuse zone (∼15,300 m2). Phase‐ratio analyses suggest that plume impingement destroys the micro‐porous structure of the uppermost regolith. We estimate that future lunar landers (e.g., SpaceX's Starship) may cause significant lunar surface disturbances over an area of square kilometers. Our results provide unique insights into Chang'e‐5 mission activities, and instructive references for the planning of future lunar endeavors, including the design and construction of surface experiment packages and permanent lunar bases.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive Lunar Surface Disturbance at the Chang'e‐5 Mission Landing Site: Implications for Future Lunar Base Design and Construction

Qiao

Hess

et al. 2023

JGR Planets

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“…McCauley (1967) and Wilhelms and McCauley (1971) 17). The significant age disparity between the two studies is likely attributed to the variations in the geological unit definition, size and locations of the crater count working area, the employed image data, diameter range and numbers of the crater for age fitting, and measurement variations between different investigators, as seen in many lunar surfaces dating studies, for instance, the Chang'e-5 sampling area dating results (Qiao, Xu, et al, 2021). We used the dating results of Imaeda et al (2013) to investigate the chronologies of volcanic cones in Marius Hills.…”

Section: The Model Ages Of the Volcanic Cones In Marius Hillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Geomorphometric Characterization of Volcanic Cones in the Marius Hills, the Moon

2022

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Volcanism is one of the main geological processes on terrestrial bodies and produces various volcanic features, including volcanoes of specific shapes, pyroclastic deposits, and lava flows. Volcanoes are the surface manifestations of thermal activity and magmatism of the parent planet. Different volcanic landforms are important indicators of various eruption processes. Investigations of the geomorphologies of volcanoes can provide key information for constraining the magma source region properties, eruption types, and emplacement processes (e.g., Thouret, 1999).Cinder cones, typically a few hundred meters in diameter and tens to hundreds of meters tall (Earle, 2019), are among the most common volcanic structures on Earth. These steep conical hills are generally interpreted to be built from loose pyroclastic fragments when bubble-rich magma lava is ejected violently from the eruption vent, which breaks up into small drops, solidifies, and finally falls back around the vent to form circular or elliptical cones of cinders, clinkers, or scoria (e.g., Poldervaart, 1971).

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“…In lunar science, impact craters represent one of the extensively studied geological landforms [1][2][3]. Research on impact craters contributes to investigations into various aspects of lunar science, including the model age of mare units on the moon [4], rock abundance [5], regolith thickness [6,7], and dielectric constants [8]. In addition, the study of impact craters is not limited to the moon, but is also be applied to different planetary systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Lunar Craters in the Chang’e-5 Landing Region Based on Kaguya TC Morning Map

Liu,

Lai,

Xie

et al. 2024

Remote Sensing

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Impact craters are extensively researched geological features that contribute to various aspects of lunar science, such as evaluating the model age, regolith thickness, etc. The method for identifying impact craters has gradually transitioned from manual counting to automated identification. Automatic crater detection based on the digital elevation model (DEM) is commonly used to detect larger craters. However, using only DEM has limitations in discerning smaller craters (diameter < ~1 km). This study utilizes an improved Faster R-CNN algorithm and the Kaguya Terrain Camera (TC) morning map to detect small impact craters in the Chang’e-5 (CE-5) landing site. It uses model fusion to improve the precision of small crater identification. The results show a recall rate of 96.33% and a precision value of 90.19% for craters with diameters exceeding 200 m. The model found a total of 187,101 impact craters in the CE-5 region. The spatial distribution density of impact craters with diameters ranging from 100 m to 200 m is approximately 2.5706/km2. For craters with diameters ranging from 200 m to 1 km, the average spatial distribution density is about 0.9016/km2. By the unbiased impact crater density of chronological analysis, the model age of the Im2 and Em4 geological units in the CE-5 region is 3.78 Ga and 2.07 Ga, respectively.

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Cratering Records in the Chang'e‐5 Mare Unit: Filling the “Age Gap” of the Lunar Crater Chronology and Preparation for Its Recalibration

Cited by 8 publications

References 37 publications

Extensive Lunar Surface Disturbance at the Chang'e‐5 Mission Landing Site: Implications for Future Lunar Base Design and Construction

Extensive Lunar Surface Disturbance at the Chang'e‐5 Mission Landing Site: Implications for Future Lunar Base Design and Construction

Identification and Geomorphometric Characterization of Volcanic Cones in the Marius Hills, the Moon

Identification of Lunar Craters in the Chang’e-5 Landing Region Based on Kaguya TC Morning Map

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