Mapping of potential lunar landing areas using LRO and SELENE data

Kokhanov, A. A.; Karachevtseva, I. P.; Zubarev, A. E.; Patraty, V.; Rodionova, Zh. F.; Oberst, J.

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2017.08.002

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The polar regions, where solar illumination is perpetually at high incidence angles, are of special interest as permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) often possess temperatures low enough to cold‐trap water ice and other volatile species where the residence times can become geologically long (billions of years; Watson et al, ; Arnold, ; Ingersoll et al, ; Vasavada et al, ; Schorghofer & Taylor, ; Zhang & Paige, ; Paige et al, ). The potential for near‐surface water ice makes the polar regions of significant interest for in situ exploration; mission planning for landing and operating in these regions will require understanding the extreme thermal environment and illumination conditions (De Rosa et al, ; Kokhanov et al, ; Lemelin et al, ; Speyerer et al, ). The original LRO mission objectives included mapping temperatures of the PSRs along with characterizing the illumination conditions in the polar regions and identifying whether near‐surface water ice exists (Vondrak et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Polar Temperatures on the Moon

et al. 2019

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The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been acquiring visible and infrared radiance measurements of the Moon for nearly 10 years. These data have been compiled into polar stereographic maps of temperatures poleward of 80° latitude at fixed local times and fixed subsolar longitudes to provide an overview of diurnal temperatures of the polar regions. The data have been divided into winter and summer seasons, defined by the times of year when the subsolar latitude is above or below the equator, to characterize the variations in seasonal temperatures that result from the 1.54° angle between the Moon's spin pole and the ecliptic plane. Since the illumination in the polar regions is perpetually at grazing angles, topography plays a dominate role in surface temperatures. Consequently, the surface and near‐surface thermal environment can vary in complex ways with time of day and season, which produces areas that are seasonally shadowed for prolonged periods and that are much more extensive than the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). We find that surfaces below 110 K capable of cold trapping water over 1 Gyr increases by factors of 2.8 and 4.3 in the winter for the south and north polar regions, respectively, with seasonal residence times of adsorbed water molecules occurring at higher temperatures and thus larger areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Polar Temperatures on the Moon

et al. 2019

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“…This study focuses on the analysis of the depth to diameter characteristics of small simple craters that might contain water ice in a Region of Interest (RoI) at the lunar south pole between −88.5°to −90°latitude (Figure 1). This area (Figure 2) is a candidate landing site for future lunar exploration missions (De Rosa et al [42], Kokhanov et al [43], and Lemelin et al [44]). The primary objective of our investigation is to analyze the d/D ratios small simple craters that fulfill good volatile harboring conditions on the Moon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depth to Diameter Analysis on Small Simple Craters at the Lunar South Pole—Possible Implications for Ice Harboring

et al. 2022

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In this paper, we present a study comparing the depth to diameter (d/D) ratio of small simple craters (200–1000 m) of an area between -88.5 to -90 latitude at the lunar south pole containing Permanent Shadowed Regions (PSRs) versus craters without PSRs. As PSRs can reach temperatures of 110 K and are capable of harboring volatiles, especially water ice, we analyzed the relationship of depth versus diameter ratios and its possible implications for harboring water ice. Variations in the d/D ratios can also be caused by other processes such as degradation, isostatic adjustment, or differences in surface properties. The conducted d/D ratio analysis suggests that a differentiation between craters containing PSRs versus craters without PSRs occurs. Thus, a possible direct relation between d/D ratio, PSRs, and water ice harboring might exist. Our results suggest that differences in the target’s surface properties may explain the obtained results. The resulting d/D ratios of craters with PSRs can help to select target areas for future In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) missions.

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“…They are also essential in engineering applications in lunar exploration missions, e.g., in landing site evaluation, safe landing, rover navigation, etc. [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Lunar global DEMs have been produced using laser altimetry or optical images.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Generative Adversarial Network for Pixel-Scale Lunar DEM Generation from High-Resolution Monocular Imagery and Low-Resolution DEM

Liu

Peng

et al. 2022

Remote Sensing

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Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide fundamental data for scientific and engineering applications in lunar exploration missions. Lunar DEMs have been mainly generated by laser altimetry and stereophotogrammetry. Complementarity to stereo photogrammetry, reflection-based surface reconstruction methods, such as shape from shading (SFS), have been studied and applied in lunar DEM reconstruction from a single image. However, this method often suffers from solution ambiguity and instability. In this paper, we propose a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based method that is able to generate high-resolution pixel-scale DEMs from a single image aided by a low-resolution DEM. We have evaluated the accuracy of the reconstructed high-resolution DEMs from 25 LROC NAC images of four regions using LROC NAC DEMs (2 m/pixel) as ground truth. The experimental results demonstrate good accuracy and adaptability to changes in illumination conditions. The root mean square error (RMSE) can reach about 2 m in areas where the degree of elevation variation is less than 100 m, and the RMSE value ranges from around 3 m to 10 m without considering the degree of the elevation variation in large-area reconstruction. As high-resolution monocular images and low-resolution DEMs are available for the entire lunar surface, the proposed GAN-based method has great potential in high-resolution lunar DEM reconstruction for lunar mapping applications.

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Mapping of potential lunar landing areas using LRO and SELENE data

Cited by 16 publications

References 15 publications

Seasonal Polar Temperatures on the Moon

Seasonal Polar Temperatures on the Moon

Depth to Diameter Analysis on Small Simple Craters at the Lunar South Pole—Possible Implications for Ice Harboring

A Generative Adversarial Network for Pixel-Scale Lunar DEM Generation from High-Resolution Monocular Imagery and Low-Resolution DEM

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