Welcome new medium resolution views from LRO

Rich detail and context is seen in this "medium resolution" image of a familiar part of the complex Aristarchus Plateau from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Prior to a recent mission-conserving transfer to higher orbit, capturing the entire width of the 165 kilometer-long Vallis Schroteri in a single Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) frame was not possible. The maneuver should add some years to the record-smashing mission following three years in an energy-taxing low lunar orbit, and welcome perspectives like this one in a 'middle range' between the best of the orbiter's narrow and wide angle camera catalogs.  LROC NAC frame M183861408R, LRO orbit 12190, February 14, 2012; angle of incidence 41.03° at 1.39 meters resolution from 140 kilometers [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Other nations can rightly boast of recent accomplishments in low Earth and lunar orbit, and its easy to lament the embarrassing length of time since America sent six manned expeditions to the lunar surface. It might seem a small thing in comparison, and easy to forget, but the United States presently has five vehicles in lunar orbit. Queen among them is the under-rated Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The LRO will soon celebrate three years in lunar orbit, far longer than any spacecraft in history, and by all accounts the vehicle is healthy and still shy of middle age. It's no small accomplishment maintaining close-lunar orbit precisely for the very reason the twin GRAIL gravity probes, "Ebb" and "Flo," were designed and subsequently dispatched to spy out. The Moon is "lumpy," with mass concentrations putting uneven drag on objects in orbit, and it also dances through a realm of space overwhelmed by the influences of Earth and Sun. To remain in lunar orbit requires skill and fuel, even over robust design.

After more than two years surveying the lunar surface from within 40 kilometers, close enough to photograph the forty year-old footprints of the Apollo astronauts and allowing more than half the Moon to be imaged at high resolution, in 2011 flight directors included two periods when LRO was swept through the 20 kilometer range. It was a last slow dance before the spacecraft was brought up above 100 kilometers. 

Eventually, planning requires LRO to be wound down tightly for more unprecedented close-ups before what is hoped will be a controlled impact, good to the last thruster fire. In the meantime, since late last year scientists have been enjoying a "medium range" perspective using the LROC Narrow Angle Camera from a higher altitude.

It difficult to disparage the quality of this LROC NAC frame of Rima Galilaei and the exposed layering of the surrounding floor of Oceanus Procellarum. This image is a full-resolution crop from LROC NAC M181552312R, orbit 11867, January 18, 2012; angle of incidence 62.51° at 1.25 meters resolution, from 125.4 kilometers altitude. For comparison, from 24.16 kilometers in orbit 9978 the previous August 21, two insets from LROC NAC frame M168584181R show half-meters resolution fields of view of the same region [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Soon after LRO arrived in lunar orbit and the first of Arizona State University's LROC Narrow Angle Camera images began arriving back on Earth, Charles Wood, who is the steadfast lunar observer and architect of the Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD) website, was quick to point out the level of detail and small fields of view seen in those images seemed almost overwhelming. He looked forward to the time, still several months off, when LROC's Wide Angle Camera (WAC) catalog premiered on the Planetary Data System (PDS). He wasn't disappointed. That wider context showed familiar landmarks Wood had long witnessed under every available illumination and focus in ways that were truly new.

These are still high-resolution images, even at less than half their previous detail. A new range of medium resolution photography from the LROC NAC offers a welcome opportunity to continue the long process of digesting the incredible volume of data that's been returned to Earth from what may already be the most cost-effective deep space mission in history.

China and the Moon

Shenzhou 9 lifts off for rendezvous and docking in space

Paul D. Spudis
The Once and Future Moon
Smithsonian Air & Space

With the weekend launch of the latest Shenzhou spacecraft and its successful rendezvous and docking with an orbiting space station, world attention is once again focused on China’s flourishing space program.  Although China’s human spaceflight efforts currently focus on low Earth orbit, in recent years they have sent two robotic orbital spacecraft to the Moon and have announced their intentions for a lunar lander/rover mission.  These efforts lead many in the west to speculate that a presence on the Moon is a likely and realistic goal for China’s space future.  In terms of the possible purpose for such lunar efforts, things are little more vague.  Most assume that China will go to the Moon for reasons similar to the geopolitical motives that impelled America to undertake the Apollo missions.  While some actually welcome China’s aspirations to conquer the Moon, other space observers smirk at their apparent willingness to (as they characterize it) “waste billions of dollars to repeat what America did thirty years ago.”  Others understand why China aims for the Moon.

The United States currently has no strategic space goal.  Many in the U.S. space community argue that the development of commercial launch services through federal subsidies is a goal.  To smooth the path for this approach, calls for consensus have been made by some New Space advocates.  Funding to support the research and development costs of these new commercial services would come by excising chunks of the rapidly dwindling NASA budget.   “Flat or declining” now describes the American civil space program budget and regularly reaching LEO to supply ISS has become our “new” vision.

In contrast, China is conducting an incremental, step-wise effort to gradually but inexorably extend their reach and influence in space, first into low Earth orbit and then into cislunar space and beyond.  Their approach uses a variety of hardware derived from existing systems while adding new capabilities over time.  China appears to be focused and following clear, long-range goals in space.  Because we do not look ahead on timescales of 20-30 years (accustomed instead to a 5-10 year timeframe), we have no long-range strategy to guide what we build or a plan for securing any long-term space goals.

Certainly wide-ranging concerns propel China’s push for human space access, some that can be envisioned now and some that cannot.  But fundamentally, they have accepted the proposition that freedom of space in the 21st century is equivalent to the principle of freedom of the seas that governed 19th and 20th century geopolitics.   In short, such a principle comprises the ability to project power and to protect national interests whenever and wherever China might be confronted within the strategic theater in question, in this case, the domain of cislunar space.

I have written before on the economic, strategic and scientific value of cislunar space, the zone in which virtually all of our space assets and satellites reside.  China intends to preserve her freedom of action by creating a spaceflight capability that can access and use any location of cislunar space, up to and including the lunar surface.  To build a sustainable space program using incremental, cumulative steps, it makes no sense to “leapfrog” over (or to ignore) the intermediate locations from which space faring capability and utility can be demonstrated, established and used.

Much of the published speculation on China’s interest in the Moon focuses on mining the Moon for the nuclear fusion fuel 3He or substances found on the lunar surface, such as titanium or rare earth elements.  In fact, one of the simplest substances found on the Moon has enormous value in space – water.  Water can be used to support human life, as a medium of energy storage, and as rocket propellant.  Water is the currency of spaceflight and one of the most valuable, usable substances we could obtain from any extraterrestrial object.

If I wanted to establish a secure foothold for my country in cislunar space, I would secure the territory near the poles of the Moon.  We know from the results of several recent probes that the lunar poles contain billions of tons of water, much of it chemically unbound as ice, a particularly easy form to harvest, concentrate and use. Material and energy resources, concentrated together in a compact location are assets of immense economic and strategic value.  Wars have been waged over less.

International treaty prohibits claims of extraterrestrial territory by national entities.  But treaties are “gentlemen’s agreements” and sometimes nations do not behave like gentlemen.  There is no mechanism to enforce the 1967 Outer Space Treaty except for a given country’s unwillingness to undergo international opprobrium.  Moreover, a country can withdraw from the treaty at will.  China tends to do what it wants to do, unless the economic or political price is perceived to be too high.  The potential of the Moon and cislunar space may outweigh their sense of geopolitical risk or concern about international ostracism.

What does this mean for the United States?  To listen to many in the space press, nothing.  A quick yawn and then back to propagandizing for more federal dollars to be passed on to new space companies.  But ultimately, it could mean that their libertarian dreams of a profit-making space frontier will never come to pass.  If free market capitalism and democratic political institutions are to have a future in the new frontier of space, entities, investors and consumers who share these values must secure a notable presence.  If the United States has a vigorous civil space program that creates a permanent presence there, such a system may have a chance to take root.  Conversely, our absence is almost a guarantee that our system and values will not be the guiding paradigm on the new frontier.

For many observers, an absent America (or with a mere supporting role) would be acceptable.  They believe America is what’s wrong with the world and that it’s high time that we step aside (in their opinion to one of subservience and irrelevance – certainly not one of power projection or as an economic engine and technology driver).  Parties (and countries) that lead make the rules.  While China has a great industrial base and a large, seemingly market-based economic system, it is actually a system of big government corporatism, where central planners decide which industries shall be allowed to grow and in what direction – capitalism, under total governmental control.

China is a rapidly advancing technically and is one of our largest trading partners, attributes beneficial in relationships between equals.  Historically, once a shift occurs in the status of partners, relationships change.  Because China’s influence in the world is growing, it is vital that we discuss and weigh these facts.  Our national economic and security interests cannot be jeopardized by a misguided rush to hand our space future over to companies who are in the imagining stage of what China just accomplished this weekend.

Originally published at his Smithsonian Air & Space blog The Once and Future Moon, Dr. Spudis is a senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the author and are better informed than average.

LROC: 10th Release to Planetary Data System

As it closes in on a full 3 years in lunar orbit, at midnight GMT, 16 June, 2012, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was completing it's 13,670th orbit of the Moon. 


Ernest Bowman-Cisneros
LROC News System

The 10th LROC Planetary Data System release includes images acquired between 2011-12-16 to 2012-03-15. This release contains 72,338 EDR images totaling 8.9 TB and 72,338 CDR images totaling 19 TB. An additional 11 LROC NAC DTM products were also added to the LROC RDR Dataset.

To date, the LROC Team has delivered 740,643 LROC images and over 8376 derived (RDR) data products to the NASA Planetary Data System. The complete LROC PDS archive can be accessed via the URL http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/data or o\ne can search for specific images or mosaics using the LROC WMS browser. Also be sure and try out Quickmap!

Chesley Bonestell and the Landscape of the Moon

Chesley Bonestall's Conquest of Space (1949).

Paul D. Spudis
The Once and Future Moon
Smithsonian Air & Space

The influence of the arts on our popular culture is well known. The television generation grew up with Forbidden Planet and Star Trek, shaping our sensibilities and expectations about space travel.  The genre of “space art” enlightened and expanded our minds and ignited our imaginations.  The sixties and seventies brought us  “space” artists with their startlingly realistic vistas of unvisited worlds and ancient times.  Authors, writing for all ages and levels of interest, found eager audiences.  From the beginning, the space age left an indelible mark on many.

The spiritual father of these efforts was an artist from the earlier half of the century.  Renowned for what was called “astronomical art,” Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) painted some of the most famous and classic works of space art.  His sequence showing the ringed giant planet Saturn from its various moons inspired hundreds of students to take up math and science.  Bonestell loved painting the planets because he was convinced that we would soon be visiting them.  His artwork was used to illustrate what media described and popularized about the forthcoming age of planetary exploration.

Bonestell made great efforts to get the technical details of his paintings correct.  He read the scientific literature so that his planetary landscapes reflected the most current knowledge of how his imagined scenes might really appear.  One of his classic pieces of work was for the influential film Destination Moon, produced in 1950 and based on stories by the classic science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein.  Bonestell did matte paintings for the Earth departure and lunar approach scenes.  His masterpiece in that effort was a fourteen-foot long, full panoramic view of the surface used during the lunar stay scenes in the movie.

Bonestell reminded his audience that our home planet is nearby — the backyard of near-Earth space.  Earth hangs relatively low in the sky over the horizon of the crater Harpalus in Mare Frigoris (latitude 52°N); rough jagged peaks, starkly lit by unfiltered blazing sunlight, are set sharply against a black sky holding a sea of silent, non-twinkling stars.  The demands of film intruded onto his artistic vision through the addition of giant cracks on the surface, a modification to which Bonestell objected.  The producer, George Pal, needed the surface cracks so that he could starkly illustrate perspective, as nearby human-scale cracks would rapidly fade into smaller ones in the distance.  Bonestell wanted to show just a dusty surface, a far-field contrast that would have been difficult to portray on the screen.

It is in regard to his portrayal of the mountains of the Moon that Bonestell has received, if not criticism, at least light censure (not without some slightly smug condescension) from some scientists.  He painted a lunar landscape ringed with rough, jagged peaks, towering about the plains, similar to the barren landscape of Death Valley in his native California.  In part, this was the conventional portrayal of lunar mountains; drawings made by engineer/astronomer James Nasmyth in the 19th Century likewise show jagged mountains on the Moon.  Telescopic views leave this impression, based largely on the dramatic appearance of sharp cast shadows on the lunar surface, visible at low sun elevations as shadows of the ringed mountains of the mare basins extend hundreds of kilometers across the flat plains of the dark maria.

The remarkable smoothness of the lunar mountains was evident when Apollo 15 went to the Moon in 1971.  To the disappointment of many, Bonestell’s vision of rugged, craggy peaks (blindingly illuminated by early morning sunlight in the black sky) gave way to an undramatic,  smooth, undulating terrain, so bland that it was difficult to gain any perspective on distance.  The sense of letdown among space buffs was widespread and illustrated most dramatically in a 1990 painting by David Hardy entitled The Way It Should Have Been, which paid tribute to Bonestell’s now-obsolete vision of lunar vistas by showing an Apollo Lunar Module snugly parked amidst the craggy peaks of Bonestell’s old Moon.

LROC 2011 view of the central peak of the crater Tycho (below) and Bonestall painting for the book, "Rocket to the Moon."

More of the Moon’s physical appearance has been unveiled.  The recent fleet of spacecraft that orbited the Moon has shown us dramatic vistas never before seen.  The spectacular high-definition television of Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft (by the way, when will NHK release a Blu-ray video disk of all that magnificent footage?) displays awesome landscapes that slowly drift beneath the orbiting vehicle, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera system has provided some unique and remarkable views.  Some of the most dramatic are oblique-looking perspective views of famous lunar landmarks.  An oblique panorama of the floor of Tycho, the prominent rayed crater on the lunar near side, shows its magnificent, rugged central peak rising out of the inky darkness of the early lunar morning.  That description sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  In fact, when I first saw the new Tycho oblique, I seemed to recall a specific Bonestell painting that was very similar to it.  It was one that Bonestell did for an early 1960’s book, Rocket to the Moon.  The distant peak in Bonestell’s painting eerily foreshadows the dramatic LROC image by 50 years.

Chesley Bonestell’s Moon lives!  Fresh, uneroded features there are as sharp and dramatic as he portrayed them half a century ago.  As lunar features slowly erode under constant sandblasting by micrometeorites and downslope movement of debris, they become smooth and rounded.  The Apennine mountains at the Apollo 15 landing site are smooth because they formed almost 4 billion years ago, in the early dawn of lunar evolution.  In contrast, the central peaks of Tycho were thrust up a mere 100 million years ago, a blink of the eye in lunar geologic terms.  In a couple of billion years, it too will round off and mellow, a gentle undulation on the floor of a nearly obliterated crater.

“The Way It Should Have Been?”  Nah – the way it really is.  On the Moon, as on Earth, spectacular landscapes feed the human spirit and kindle our desire to travel to new places.

Originally published at his Smithsonian Air & Space blog The Once and Future Moon, Dr. Spudis is a senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the author and are better informed than average.

LROC: Hyginus and Pyroclastics

A 145 meter crater on the north rim of Hyginus Crater uncovered dark, most likely pyroclastic material. A 504 meter-wide field of view under a relatively high sun (angle of incidence = )from LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M155193272R, LRO orbit 8005, March 19, 2011; resolution 0.48 meters from 40.33 kilometers. View the larger, original LROC Featured Image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Sarah Braden

LROC News Center

A crater on the northern rim of Hyginus crater (exact location: 7.896°N, 6.229°E, diameter of 145 meters) excavated low reflectance material.

Deposits of pyroclastics are located around Hyginus Crater, so the low reflectance material is most likely from a layer of pyroclastics buried beneath the lunar surface. 

The same eruption that emplaced the pyroclastics also likely created an empty cavity beneath the surface, which then collapsed, forming Hyginus Crater!

A 1.38 kilometer-wide field of view from the LROC NAC frame stepped back to 2 meter resolution shows the subject of the Featured Image emplaced on the north rim 600 meters over the caldera interior. Dark material excavated by the impact appears to have streamed over the rim and down the wall [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

A small, fresh crater on the southern exterior of Hyginus has high reflectance, optically immature ejecta rays instead of dark rays caused by uncovering pyroclastic material.  LROC NAC M155193272R. View a larger version of this 420 meter-wide field of view HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Another crater in the image above (located at 7.608°N, 6.221°E) found on the southern rim of Hyginus is a perfect contrast to the crater in the Featured Image. The rim of the crater is hard to see in this image, but the diameter is ~20 m. This crater is smaller, so it excavated material from a shallower depth compared to the Featured Image crater, and therefore did not sample the buried pyroclastic deposit. The rays from the crater on the southern rim are high reflectance, which is typical of immaturity rays made of fresh material, in comparison to rays made from material compositionally different from the surrounding area.

In this LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) context image the yellow arrow marks the location of the crater in the Featured Image and the white marks the location of the fresh rayed crater. LROC WAC observation M177596018C, LRO orbit 11308, December 3, 2011; angle of incidence 70.31° at 52.82 meters resolution from 38.98 kilometers  [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Explosive eruptions of basaltic magma form lunar pyroclastic deposits, which are associated with the eruption of the mare deposits on the near side of the Moon. In remote sensing data pyroclastic deposits appear smooth and low in reflectance. Pyroclastic deposits are valuable since measurements of pyroclastic beads returned from the Apollo missions show that the material is enriched in volatile elements such as sulfur, lead, fluorine, and zinc (compared to other more common lunar materials such as mare basalt and highland anorthosite). On the Earth all of these materials are relatively common. However, if you were living on the Moon, pyroclastic deposits are the best place to find these materials! Pyroclastics are also typically high in iron oxides and some contain titanium oxides.

Explore more of the Hyginus caldera inside and out with the full LROC NAC image, HERE.

Related Images:

Inside Hyginus

Rock slide in Rima Hyginus

Dark streaks in Diophantus crater

Alphonsus crater mantled floor fracture

Read more about the Hyginus region in the Icarus paper, "An igneous origin for Rima Hyginus and Hyginus crater on the Moon."

LROC: Rock silde in Rima Hyginus

A rock slide along a section of the northern wall of Rima Hyginus. LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M111545012R, LRO orbit 1572, October 30, 2009; angle of incidence 27.62° at a native resolution of 0.48 meters from 47.28 kilometers. See the 576 meter-wide field of view of the area in the LROC Featured Image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Sarah Braden

LROC News System

Rima Hyginus is a linear rille which branches to the northwest and east of Hyginus crater.

The rock slide shown in the Featured Image is located on the northern wall of the eastern branch of Rima Hyginus at 7.393°N, 7.954°E. Bright boulder-rich material from the edge of the rille slid down the wall, possibly during a period of tectonic shaking due to a moonquake or forces associated with a nearby impact.

A trio of large boulders also left trails as they tumbled down the rille's wall.

LROC NAC and WAC mosaic overlay showing a cross-section of Rima Hyginus at the point of the rock slide of interest, LROC QuickMap at 4 meters per pixel resolution [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Rima Hyginus formed through faulting, and is actually a graben. A graben is a section of the crust that sunk as two parallel faults pulled apart. Remember, the term linear rille is just a fancy way of saying a graben. After the graben formed Rima Hyginus, the landscape changed again due to volcanic activity, specifically the collapse craters easily seen in the the WAC context image here. The craters follow the slight curve of the rille, which indicates that they are not simply a chain of secondary craters that happened to land on top of the existing graben. These craters also do not have raised rims, and they probably formed when the volcanic structures underlying the graben collapsed.

Branch of Rima Hyginus trailing away east from the Hyginus crater, with the subject rock slide designated with the yellow arrow. Cropped at its full 52.5 meter resolution from LROC Wide Angle Camera monochrome (604nm) observation M177582468C, LRO orbit 11306, December 3, 2011, from 38.58 kilometers [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Examine more of Rima Hyginus in the full LROC NAC frame HERE.

Related Images:

Linear Graben

It's the Moon's Fault

Inside Hyginus Crater

Read more about the Hyginus region in the Icarus paper, "An igneous origin for Rima Hyginus and Hyginus crater on the Moon."

Second Conference on the Lunar Highlands

First Results: from Figure 2, "Preliminary results on the structure of lunar highland crust from GRAIL and LOLA altimetry," Zuber & Smith, et al, (#9015, Second Conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust, 2012) Preliminary GRAIL gravity field for the 86-km-diameter Tycho crater. Tycho is the prominent structure at upper left. In this GRAIL map reds correspond to mass excesses and blues to mass deficits. GRAIL gravity has a spatial resolution of 18 kilometers [NASA/JPL/MIT].

Clive Neal
Notre Dame

The first conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust was held in 1979. Since that seminal meeting, our knowledge of the lunar highlands has advanced enormously. Unimagined new data have become available, notably in orbital remote sensing of mineralogy, chemistry, topography, and gravity; geochronology; and geochemistry, especially isotopic constraints and the abundances and natures of lunar volatiles. These new data are paralleled by new concepts of solar system science, including the importance and timing of impact events (including the one that formed the Moon) and the nature of the early solar system disk and its dynamical instabilities. 

In light of these advances in the last 34 years, the time seems right for a synoptic reexamination of the lunar highlands crust. The Second Conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust is intended to bring members of the planetary science community together to share their specialized insights into the lunar highlands crust, exchange ideas freely, and perhaps develop new cross-disciplinary ideas and tests of those ideas.

A field trip to the Stillwater Mine will be held on Thursday, July 12, and a field trip to Picket Pin Mountain will be held on Monday, July 16 (departing Bozemanon Sunday, July 15, following the conclusion of the final oral session). More details about the field trips, along with information about registration, accommodations, transportation, and much more, are available in the final announcement.

For more information, visit the conference website, HERE.

"Preliminary results on the structure of lunar highland crust from GRAIL and LOLA altimetry," Zuber & Smith, et al, (#9015, Second Conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust, 2012)

Related: Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD), "First Results," June 13, 2012, Charles Wood

First atmospheric helium detections by LRO LAMP UV spectrograph

Depicted here are atmospheric emission spectra (black) obtained by LAMP on two dates in late 2011, in units of Rayleighs per angstrom. Each panel’s black line is the spectrum obtained by LAMP when its spectrograph slit was placed 83 deg from the nadir, just above the lunar limb. The red line in each panel is the background spectrum obtained close in time by observing the same patch of sky when it is at the zenith, where any contribution from the lunar atmosphere is minimized. The blue line in each panel is the difference spectrum obtained by subtracting the background from the limb spectrum, revealing native lunar atmospheric emission from He I at 584 Å. 1-sigma error bars are depicted on each curve every 4th spectral point, for reference.

Stern, et al
SWrI*

The LAMP far ultraviolet spectrograph aboard the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been used to search for helium, the lightest noble gas in the tenuous lunar atmosphere. We report here the first detection of lunar atmospheric He by remote sensing, and point to future observations that can address questions about its source, and to a search for native lunar atmospheric argon.

*Southwest Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Central Arizona College

AGU research published May 2012

Morpheus employs ALHAT in tether test #16

The Morpheus vertical test bed has successfully executed a 16th tether test. This was the first flight after the team integrated ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) into the vehicle.

Bound for Hawai'i - NASA KSC shows off latest rover concept, ISRU and lunar analog study platform

The Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE, consists of a lunar rover and drill to support a NASA payload that is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources.  Kennedy Space Center "media photo opportunity," Tuesday, June 12, 2012.

Kennedy Space Center - Central Florida News 13 (Orlando) NASA is undertaking a possible rover mission which will hunt for large quantities of water on the lunar surface. Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center, a lunar rover and drill were unveiled, designed to prospect for water and ice on the moon.

Much of the proposed mission springboard off a recent moon mapping mission which detected thick pockets of water ice in areas which are never exposed to the sun.

Water is essential to produce oxygen to breathe and cool spacecraft and equipment.

"Seventy-five percent or more of the vehicle is propellant. And if I didn't have to take all of that with me, I can save an awful lot on launch costs. Not having to carry the mass of the water with you everywhere you get is really important. It would reduce the mass and size of our launch vehicles, and thereby drop the cost of the missions," explained NASA project manager William Larson.

The Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE (pdf), consists of a lunar rover and drill provided by the Canadian Space Agency to support a NASA payload that is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. RESOLVE also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites by manufacturing oxygen from soil.

Full Story, HERE.

Related Post:

Development of a reactor for the extraction of oxygen and volatiles from lunar regolith

LROC: Inside Rima Hyginus

Collapse features within Hyginus Crater. 1240 meter-wide field of view from LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M104476560L, LRO orbit 556, August 9, 2009; resolution 1.24 meters from 122.77 kilometers. View the LROC Featured Image, released June 12, 2012 HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State Univeristy].

Sarah Braden
LROC News System

Most craters posted to the LROC Featured Image page are impact craters, however, Hyginus Crater (located at 7.75°N, 6.27°E, in Sinus Medii) is a volcanic crater known as a caldera. Two main pieces of evidence suggest that Hyginus Crater formed through volcanic processes. First, Hyginus lacks a raised rim typical of impact craters. Second, the rim of Hyginus is irregular (not circular), which is typical for volcanic craters caused by collapse. Also, if you look closely with the LROC NAC, the interior of Hyginus has a number of small irregular depressions which are most likely collapse features, indicating a volcanic origin for Hyginus. These irregular depressions are in the Featured Image, distinguished by rough, high reflectance material around their edges.

Eight meter per pixel resolution view from LROC QuickMap shows the "meniscus hollows" features in context with the eastern interior of Hyginus [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

The entire Hyginus region, shown in the LROC context image below, is a complex piece of lunar real estate. Not only do you have the volcanic crater Hyginus, but also Rima Hyginus, a linear rille, more volcanic collapse craters aligned with the linear rille, and a pyroclastic deposit around the crater Hyginus. How do all the geologic features relate to one another? The Hyginus region is so amazing that it was a candidate landing site for the canceled Apollo 19 mission. Had events turned out differently, we might know much more about the pyroclastic materials and the Hyginus caldera. Continue reading below for a summary of the scientific theory of how the Hyginus region formed.

An almost oblique view (spacecraft and camera slewed 19.57° east from nadir), LROC WAC view from 42.29 kilometers over an area west of Rima Hyginus. The caldera, particularly its east walls, can be seen here in some relief, without the high angle of incidence seen in the next image. LROC WAC observation M165814883C (604nm), LRO orbit 9570, July 20, 2011; native resolution 62.94 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

In a recent paper, scientists proposed a model of formation for Hyginus crater and Rima Hyginus. First, a body of magma from the mantle rose vertically through the lunar crust. The magma stopped rising near the surface and spread out laterally. This introduction of new material beneath the surface caused stress on the crust, which resulted in faulting. Eventually, gasses from the magmatic material still underneath the surface built up and increased the gas pressure, further increasing the stress on the crust.

LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) monochrome (689nm) observation of the Hyginus region. The yellow arrow marks the location of the collapse feature, the meniscus hollow, within Hyginus caldera seen at high resolution in the LROC Featured Image and the white arrow designates a small dome feature brought to attention by Maurice Collins. LROC WAC M117447052ME, orbit 2442, January 6, 2010; incidence angle 81.75° and a 62.6 meter resolution from 41.63 kilometers [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

This stress eventually caused graben to open along the faults, and the same release of stress initiated an eruption, including pyroclastic materials. After the eruption of magmatic material an empty cavity beneath the surface was left behind. This cavity collapsed, creating Hyginus crater. The collapse craters along the linear rille also formed in a similar way.

LROC NAC image M126887222L gives another look at the largest collapse feature in the main image. This image field of view is 487 meters wide (588 meters in the LROC Featured Image release), and has a lower illumination incidence angle, which emphasizes albedo differences over the kind of relief visible in the LROC WAC image immediately above. LRO orbit 3833, April 26, 2010; incidence angle 28.28° with a resolution of 0.48 meters from 40.55 kilometers [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Explore more of the Hyginus caldera in the full LROC NAC, HERE.

Related Posts:
LPOD: Another Ina?

Ina of the Meniscus Hollows

Whale of a hollow

It's a gas, man
Brayley G
Sinuous Chain of Depressions
It's the Moon's Fault

You can read more about the Hyginus region in the Icarus paper, "An igneous origin for Rima Hyginus and Hyginus crater on the Moon."

The central and western Hyginus and Rima Hyginus region and points immediately north and beyond under mid-morning illumination, as seen from around 100 kilometers over the south , a forward-looking HDTV still captured by Japan's lunar orbiter SELENE-1 (Kaguya) in 2008 [JAXA/NHK/SELENE].

University of Arizona off-world garden ready for tour

Tyler Jensen, left, and Thomas Hillebrand are putting together the teaching module of the University of Arizona's Lunar Greenhouse, which is headed to San Diego and Chicago to raise awareness about the greenhouse and hydroponic gardening. A prototype greenhouse is at the right [Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star].

Mark Armao

The Arizona Daily Star

A greenhouse designed for extraterrestrial use is taking a more terrestrial trip this summer.

Someday, the University of Arizona's Lunar Greenhouse will provide a life-support system for astronauts on prospective missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. But before it gets to the moon, the Lunar Greenhouse is hitting the road.

Designed by a team at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, the greenhouse is being exhibited at the San Diego County Fair, followed by a stopover at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

"This is for rocket technology, but it's not rocket science," said Lane Patterson, lab manager and researcher for the project.

The goal is to show vegetables can not only be grown in space, but can also supply astronauts with oxygen and clean water, he said.

A prototype has been operating at UA's Campus Agriculture Center since 2010. Inside, vegetables climb the walls of the 18-foot-long cylinder with aluminum ribs covered by a durable plastic skin. Picture a really big slinky with plants inside.

The structure collapses into a 4-foot-long disk for spaceflight. Upon landing, the greenhouse would expand like an accordion and begin to operate.

The greenhouse grows plants hydroponically, which means without soil. Seeds take root in a nutrient-rich solution contained in a flexible plastic tube.

"We're working mostly with vegetables that NASA has interest in; that's leafy green vegetables -lettuces and spinaches and small green herbs like basil," said Gene Giacomelli, director of the program and a plant sciences and engineering professor. The team also is interested in vining plants like tomatoes and root crops like sweet potatoes.

Food isn't the only benefit.

"Each one of them (plants) can provide the water and the oxygen for one astronaut every day," Giacomelli said.

It works like this: The plants absorb carbon dioxide, which astronauts breathe out. And then release oxygen, which astronauts breathe in. In addition to revitalizing the air, the Lunar Greenhouse would recycle water. Eventually, the system would provide clean water by cycling distilled urine through the plants, and collecting the water vapor the plants give off. The intent is to conserve resources and reduce waste.

The lack of atmosphere on the moon presents other challenges, as well. The Lunar Greenhouse would have to be buried under a layer of lunar soil to protect it from micrometeorites and solar radiation. This means artificial lighting is a crucial factor for the project. Proposed lighting options include using energy-efficient LEDs, and piping sunlight into the greenhouse via fiber optic cables, Giacomelli said.

Webcams and sensors in the greenhouse would allow operators on Earth to monitor and manipulate the conditions inside the Lunar Greenhouse.

Giacomelli said the technology has plenty of applications on Earth.

"If a greenhouse is just being installed in Northern Africa, for example, where they've never had a greenhouse before. We do not have to be there to help them grow," he said. "We can stay in Tucson and give them advice from the web camera from the data on the computer and help them grow the crop."

The project is funded through NASA's Ralph Steckler Space Grant Colonization Research and Technology Development Opportunity.

The team has positioned a webcam in the lab that anyone can view online. Team members have addressed entire classrooms though the webcam - from local third-graders to Australian graduate students. "Rather than taking the classroom to the lab, we're taking the lab to the classroom," said Patterson.

What's heading to San Diego and Chicago is a teaching module similar to the Lunar Greenhouse to raise awareness about the project and how to garden hydroponically, Giacomelli said.

As for the Lunar Greenhouse and its prospective trip to space, no specific benchmarks have been set. Funding for the Lunar Greenhouse comes from a special foundation, so recent budget cuts at NASA have not directly affected the project.

Patterson is confident in the system's capabilities, and where the outreach program is headed.

"It's about keeping you alive," he said. "Period."

Details of the scheduled exhibits, HERE.
View the UA's Lunar Greenhouse Online

ISRU: NASA KSC prototype rover photo op

From the Hawai'i summer season of 2011, NASA and academia will continue the methodical testing and development of semi-autonomous and robust robotic rovers will continue this year [NASA].

An excellent overview of a recent lunar analog study, released (PDF) May 2012
Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) 2009: A 14-Day Evaluation of the
SpaceExploration Vehicle Prototype in a Lunar Analog Environment
Abercromby, Gernhardt and Litaker, JSC

Media are invited to a briefing and photo opportunity Tuesday, June 12, at the Press Site television auditorium at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to view a prototype of a lunar prospecting mission.

The Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE, consists of a lunar rover and drill provided by the Canadian Space Agency to support a NASA payload that is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. RESOLVE also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites by manufacturing oxygen from soil.

Journalists will have an opportunity to photograph the hardware, as well as interview NASA and Canadian Space Agency officials.

NASA will be conducting field tests in July outside of Hilo, Hawaii, with equipment and concept vehicles that demonstrate how explorers might prospect for resources and make their own oxygen for survival while on other planetary bodies.

Journalists without Kennedy accreditation must apply for credentials by 4 p.m. June 11. International media accreditation for this event is closed. Badges for this specific event can be picked up at Kennedy's Badging Office on State Road 405. Media must apply for credentials online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA's exploration plans, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

Back to the Moon: The Scientific Rationale for Resuming Lunar Surface Exploration

Capt. Gene Cernan, USN (Ret.), at the beginning of the third and final EVA of Apollo 17, December 13, 1972 [NASA/Harrison Schmitt].

I. A. Crawford, et al*.
Accepted for publication in a forthcoming Special Issue of
Planetary and Space Science on
"Scientific Preparations for Lunar Exploration"

The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout Solar System history. In addition, the lunar surface offers outstanding opportunities for research in astronomy, astrobiology, fundamental physics, life sciences and human physiology and medicine. This paper provides an interdisciplinary review of outstanding lunar science objectives in all of these different areas. It is concluded that addressing them satisfactorily will require an end to the 40-year hiatus of lunar surface exploration, and the placing of new scientific instruments on, and the return of additional samples from, the surface of the Moon. Some of these objectives can be achieved robotically (e.g. through targeted sample return, the deployment of geophysical networks, and the placing of antennas on the lunar surface to form radio telescopes). However, in the longer term, most of these scientific objectives would benefit significantly from renewed human operations on the lunar surface. For these reasons it is highly desirable that current plans for renewed robotic surface exploration of the Moon are developed in the context of a future human lunar exploration program, such as that proposed by the recently formulated Global Exploration Roadmap.

Read the full arXiv.org research, HERE. (PDF)

Related:

The Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon (2007)
Space Studies Board, National Research Council of the National Academies

*M. Anand, C. S. Cockelle, H. Falcke, D. A. Green, R. Jaumann & M. A. Wieczorek

LROC: 'A Wrinkly Crater'

An unnamed crater deformed by tectonic forces. LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) M183760209L, LRO orbit 12175, February 13, 2012; image field of view 960 meters, resolution 0.8 meters. View the more detailed LROC Featured Image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Drew Enns

LROC News System

Wrinkle ridges are one of the most common tectonic features on the Moon, and they are found in the lunar maria. Today's Featured Image focuses on one wrinkle ridge, designated Vitello R from the nearby crater, deforming a small mare crater located just south of Mare Humorum. We can tell the wrinkle ridge, and associated tectonic deformation, is much younger than the mare pond as it cross-cuts and modifies the crater (the crater formed after the mare was deposited). Crater counting indicates Mare Humorum is ~3.5 billion years old, but can we say anything more definite about the timing of this wrinkle ridge's formation? Looking at the entirety of the wrinkle ridge may give us more clues.

LROC Wide Angle Camera mosaic as context for the LROC Featured Image released June 8, 2012 (FOV marked with white arrow). The wrinkle ridge can be seen transitioning into a lobate scarp when it exits the mare pond (black arrows). Field of view 58 km across. View the 100 km FOV in image accompanying the Featured Image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

The wrinkle ridge shows a peculiar change in morphology as it crosses from the mare to the nearby highlands. The wrinkle ridge transitions to a lobate scarp both in the north and south! While wrinkle ridges are characterized by a broad arch with smaller associated ridges, lobate scarps are generally asymmetric landforms with a steep scarp face and shallow tailing end. Both landforms are interpreted as the surface manifestation of thrust faulting in different tectonic settings, so the wrinkle ridge and lobate scarps are probably related. A fresh crater in the bottom-left of the context image erases a portion of the western lobate scarp, but everywhere else the scarp deforms the surface. We can then infer from these observations that the wrinkle ridge-lobate scarp is both caused by a single thrust fault and is fairly young!

Explore more of the wrinkle ridge in the full LROC NAC HERE!

Related Posts:
Not Your Average Scarp
Bulging Wrinkle
Tectonics in Mare Frigoris

LROC: "Pyroclastic Excavation"

An impact excavated low-reflectance pyroclastic formation, part of a landmark region of the Moon's nearside characterized by dark mantling deposits east of Copernicus. LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M170613335L,, LRO orbit 10277, September 14, 2011. Image field of view 418 meters, angle of incidence 13.03° at 0.49 meters resolution from 44.83 kilometers. View the larger 500 meter field of view in the LROC Featured Image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Lillian Ostrach
LROC News System

Some regions of the Moon exhibit dark mantling deposits that were formed by fire-fountain style eruptions, similar to Strombolian or some Hawaiian eruptions. Unlike the effusively emplaced mare basalts, pyroclastic eruptions were more energetic because the erupted material contained more volatiles and formed volcanic glass beads. In some cases, pyroclastics are found in small, localized areas, surrounding a vent such as in Alphonsus crater or in Schrödinger basin.

Today's Featured Image is located within a larger regional pyroclastic deposit (5.470°N, 352.014°E; low-reflectance material) south of Sinus Aestuum, and is centered on a small impact crater (~170 m diameter) that excavated fresh pyroclastic material from depth. Since this crater is located within a regional pyroclastic deposit, the freshly-exposed pyroclastics appear lower reflectance than the surrounding surface, possibly as a result of ejecta emplacement from impacts (both near and far afield) that deposited higher-reflectance material and mixed the regolith (impact gardening).

LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) monochrome mosaic centered on the regional pyroclastic deposits south of Sinus Aestuum and east of Copernicus. Asterisk notes location of the field of view highlighted at high resolution in the LROC Featured Image released June 7, 2012. View the larger context image HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Understanding the distribution, extent, and thickness of pyroclastic deposits can help constrain the volcanic history of the Moon and answer questions regarding the volatile content of the early Moon. For example, Apollo 17 samples of pyroclastic glass from the Taurus-Littrow Valley confirmed that fire-fountain eruptions occurred on the Moon and that the glass beads were rich in titanium as well as small amounts of zinc and sulfur (volatiles). More recently, scientists have improved upon the measured values for volatiles, such as carbon dioxide, water, fluoride, sulfur, and chlorine, in the pyroclastic glasses returned from the Apollo missions. Isn't it amazing how much we can learn from the Apollo samples?

Explore the pyroclastics in the full LROC NAC frame, HERE!

Related Posts:
Aristarchus Spectacular!
A Dark Cascade at Sulpicius Gallus
Up from the depths

Bradbury Chronicle

LROC: Rim Impact

The small pond of impact melt and debris on the floor of Hercules E is not circular. What forces teamed up to result in this small triangular crater floor deposit? LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M170300291R, LRO orbit 10231, September 10, 2011; field of view width is 500 meters at 0.47 meter-per-pixel resolution in the full size LROC Featured Image, from 38.49 kilometers; angle of incidence 49.08° Spacecraft was significantly slewed from nadir (-12.66°). [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Lillian Ostrach
LROC News System

Simple craters on the Moon, roughly ≤15 - 20 km in diameter, are typically bowl-shaped, but changes in impact conditions influence the final crater shape. When a bolide (asteroid or comet or even spacecraft) impacts the lunar surface, the resulting crater shape is dependent on several factors, and the influence of these factors on crater shape is complicated. Final crater shape is dependent on factors such as angle of impact, speed of impact, slope of the surface, and target material, and often it is difficult (at times, impossible!) to determine which factor dominates the crater formation process. In fact, the bulk of knowledge about impact cratering mechanics is derived from experiments and numerical modeling that attempt to understand the dynamics of impact cratering.

Today's Featured Image is proof that impact crater shape is somehow linked to the factors mentioned above. Hercules E crater (45.783°N, 38.698°E, ~9 km diameter) formed on the southern rim and wall of the much larger Hercules crater (~70 km diameter), nestled between Lacus Mortis and Atlas crater. The shape of "E" (see LROC WAC context image below) is elongated and more elliptical than circular, especially compared to Hercules G and an unnamed crater that impacted into the Hercules rim to the east. In the WAC, just over half of Hercules E is in shadow, so observations of the floor are impossible at this scale. However, the crater interior is visible in the opening NAC image, and the triangular-shaped floor suggests that Hercules E is not a simple bowl-shaped crater after all.

The uncorrected full 2.5 kilometer-wide field of view of LROC NAC frame M170300291R, centered on Hercules E, high on the southwestern rim of Hercules proper [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

An initial interpretation might be that the morphology of the crater interior was largely influenced by formation on the rim and wall of Hercules, but there are two circular craters that also formed on the rim and wall Hercules. The presence of these circular perched craters on the wall of Hercules, as well as circular perched craters elsewhere on the Moon, suggests that other factors (impact velocity, impact angle) likely contributed to the elliptical shape of Hercules E. When the angle of impact is low (<15°), crater shapes change from circular to more elliptical or oblique, so it may be that Hercules E resulted from an oblique impact. However, impact velocity can also affect crater shape and low velocity impacts may produce irregularly-shaped craters.

LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) monochrome mosaic centered on Hercules crater (45.783°N, 38.698°E). Hercules E formed on the southern rim; location of the field of view included in the LROC Featured Image released June 6, 2012 is noted by an asterisk [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Suffice to say, the answer to the question of "What factors primarily control crater shape?" is complicated and is probably dependent on the location of the crater, the size of the crater, and the geology of its surroundings. Perhaps a global survey of crater shapes using LROC WAC and NAC DTMs, paired with hydrocode numerical modeling of crater formation, would be beneficial to assessing this science question.

What do you think? What observations can you make when exploring the full LROC NAC image, HERE?

Related Posts:
Rim on a Rim
Last Portion of Original Floor
Dark Impact Melt Sheet
Ryder Spectacular!