Characteristics of de Gerlache crater, site of girlands and slope exposed ice in a lunar polar depression

Keresztúri, A.; Tomka, R.; Gläser, P.; Pál, Bernadett; Steinmann, Vilmos; Warren, T.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115231

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Figure 5 shows the effective solar irradiance and surface potential within the study area. As a result of the nearly horizontal incidental sunlight, only part of the Shackleton crater rim and the connecting ridge between the Shackleton and de Gerlache craters are illuminated [29,30], where the solar irradiance is mainly below 300 watts/m 2 , as shown in Figure 5a. In comparison, most of the study area is in the shadowed region.…”

Section: Electric-field Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of the Lunar Polar Environment: Implications for Rover Exploration Challenge

et al. 2023

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The lunar polar regions are key areas for future exploration due to the long-term continuous illumination and persistently shadowed regions that can cold trap abundant water and other volatiles. However, the complex terrain, dynamic lighting, and solar wind-induced electric-field environment present multiple challenges for polar investigation and sampling missions. China’s Chang’E-7 (CE-7) will explore the Moon’s south polar region in 2026. One of the scientific goals is to drill samples in a wide area with a rover for in situ analysis. This study analyzes the engineering constraints of the polar illumination condition, slopes, and electric field for landing and sampling-site selection. Then, we create a 3D model of CE-7’s lunar rover in three operating environments by employing the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction Software, with the rover sampling (i) on a flat surface, (ii) in a shadow, and (iii) near a meter-scale crater under different solar altitude angles. The results show that the rover can be charged to different potentials under the combined effects of solar wind incident angles and surrounding terrains. We find that a favorable traversing and/or sampling site of the rover for future polar exploration is in the upwind direction of a bulge (positively elevated terrains, such as the lander or boulders) or crater, which will cause a minimum charging effect on the rover. Our results have important implications for minimizing the risk of charging effects and guiding the lunar polar region exploration.

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Section: Electric-field Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of the Lunar Polar Environment: Implications for Rover Exploration Challenge

et al. 2023

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“…Pre‐Nectarian terra, Nectarian crater, and Imbrian secondary crater materials are present within a 10 km radial distance from Site 011 (Figure 2). This site may allow for volatile sampling within secondary craters and comparison to Apollo permanently shadowed region (PSR) crater samples (Kereszturi et al., 2022; Li & Milliken, 2017). The de Gerlache ejecta within the region may provide samples of anorthositic crustal lithologies and SPA ejecta.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithologies and Chronologic Opportunities of Materials to Be Returned From the Artemis Exploration Zone

Patterson,

Lapen,

Kring

et al. 2024

JGR Planets

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The Artemis exploration zone is a geologically complex region likely to host some of the oldest and as‐yet‐unstudied materials on the Moon. We review six potential Artemis landing sites (001, 004, 007, 011, 102, and 105) within candidate Artemis III landing regions ”Connecting Ridge,“ “Peak Near Shackleton,” “Leibnitz Beta Plateau,” “de Gerlache Rim,” and “de Gerlache Rim 2.” Kaguya Spectral Profiler mineral data were used to determine the average lithological composition at each landing site. Potentially accessible geologic materials, their ages and significance, and appropriate application of radiometric chronometers are discussed in reference to return samples from each potential landing site. Chronological analyses of return samples from the Artemis exploration zone will enable the anchoring of the lunar impact flux curve, determine the absolute timing of pivotal events in lunar geologic history, and reveal the geological diversity of the differentiated lunar body.

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“…Therefore, it is an important step to study the degree and mechanism of modification of the lunar surface topography by lunar mass movements to fully clarify the evolution of the lunar surface topography, which helps to understand the ancient state of the Earth, the origin, and evolution of the Solar System. Mass movements have been distributed on various terrains on the Moon, including impact craters, volcanic domes, tectonic scarps, rilles, valleys, and wrinkle ridges , but most of the landslides occur on the walls of impact craters; including Fall, Slide, Slump, Creep, and Flow, five kinds of gravity erosion processes (Bickle et al, 2021), such as the creep produced so called "girlands" identified recently in deGerlache crater (Kereszturi et al, 2022). The surface gravity of the Moon is small, just one-sixth that of those on the Earth, which means that the Moon can support proportionally higher topography than the Earth for the same material strength (Melosh, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

A review of studies on mass-movements on the Moon

Wang

Shi

2023

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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The study of the lunar surface is a significant field in exploring the Moon. As a non-negligible geological process shaping the lunar surface, however, the mass movements on the Moon have not been deeply studied regarding all available datasets. In this paper, we report the results of the literature review and quantitative analysis of 965 articles retrieved from the Scopus, WoS, and Astrophysics Data System databases using keyword search terms between the years 1872 and 2022. The main findings show that the lunar mass movements are a lasting but recent prosperous research topic (since 2009). The top three influential journals in this area are Icarus, JGR, and P&SS. Robinson, Lucchitta, and Carr are the most three productive authors. California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, and Johns Hopkins University are active institutions leading the lunar mass movements research, and the related institutions are mainly located in the United States, Russia, and China. Articles are primarily published in journals specializing in the fields of astronomy and physics. The index analysis of citation indicates the growth of the academic impact of articles about the lunar mass movements. This article summarizes the datasets, methods, and relevant parameters of lunar mass movements to facilitate future research, as well as discussing the limitations and trends in the field. In addition, four unsolved issues are proposed, including: 1) the lack of a comprehensive global database that records all types of landslides incidents; 2) the need for definite classification indicators to quantify the classification criteria for lunar mass movements; 3) the absence of a mathematical model to explain the triggering mechanism of mass movements on the Moon; and 4) the lack of quantitative indexes to evaluate the modification effect of mass movements on the lunar surface morphology. With the support of big data, the combination of artificial intelligence and traditional GIS methods is expected to become the main approach for addressing these issues such a bibliometric analysis can inspire future researchers by exploring the overall characteristics of the published literature on lunar mass movements.

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Characteristics of de Gerlache crater, site of girlands and slope exposed ice in a lunar polar depression

Cited by 6 publications

References 66 publications

Numerical Simulation of the Lunar Polar Environment: Implications for Rover Exploration Challenge

Numerical Simulation of the Lunar Polar Environment: Implications for Rover Exploration Challenge

Lithologies and Chronologic Opportunities of Materials to Be Returned From the Artemis Exploration Zone

A review of studies on mass-movements on the Moon

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