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1.
In this article, we discuss four fundamental scientific problems of lunar research: (1) lunar chronology, (2) the internal structure of the Moon, (3) the lunar polar regions, and (4) lunar volcanism. After formulating the scientific problems and their components, we proceed to outlining a list of technical solutions and priority lunar regions for research. Solving the listed problems requires investigations on the lunar surface using lunar rovers, which can deliver a set of analytical equipment to places where geological conditions are known from a detailed analysis of orbital information. The most critical research methods, which can answer some of the key questions, are analysis of local geological conditions from panoramic photographs, determination of the chemical, isotopic, and mineral composition of the soil, and deep seismic sounding. A preliminary list is given of lunar regions with high scientific priority.  相似文献   

2.
Three types of igneous rocks, all ultimately related to basaltic liquids, appear to be common on the lunar surface. They are: (1) iron-rich mare basalts, (2) U-, REE-, and Al-rich basalts (KREEP), and (3) plagioclase-rich or anorthositic rocks. All three rock types are depleted in elements more volatile than sodium and in the siderophile elements when relative element abundances are compared with those of carbonaceous chondrites. The chemistry and age relationships of these rocks suggest that they are derived from a feldspathic, refractory element-rich interior that becomes more pyroxenitic; that is, iron/magnesium-rich; with depth.It is suggested that the deeper parts of the lunar interior tend toward chondritic element abundances. The radial variation in mineralogy and bulk chemical composition inferred from the surface chemistry is probably a primitive feature of the Moon that reflects the accretion of refractory elementenriched materials late in the formation of the body.  相似文献   

3.
From the Clementine UVVIS imagery of the lunar surface, the abundance of agglutinates in the lunar regolith and their composition in terms of FeO and Al2O3 oxides have been predicted. Data on the spectral, chemical, and mineralogic measurements of about 30 lunar soil samples from the Lunar Samples Characterization Consortium (LSCC) collection were used. The fulfilled prognosis confirms that the mare agglutinates are enriched in Al2O3 and depleted of FeO, while the highland agglutinates are depleted of Al2O3 and enriched in FeO. This behavior can be caused by the global transport of the lunar surface material induced by cosmogenic factors.  相似文献   

4.
The principal chemical element composition and inferred mineralogy of the powdered lunar surface material at seven mare and one terra sites on the Moon are compared. The mare compositions are all similar to one another and comparable to those of terrestrial ocean ridge basalts except in having higher titanium and much lower sodium contents than the latter. These analyses suggest that most, if not all, lunar maria have this chemical composition and are derived from rocks with an average density of 3.19 g cm–3. Mare Tranquillitatis differs from the other maria in having twice the titanium content of the others.The chemical composition of the single highland site studied (Surveyor 7) is distinctly different from that of any of the maria in having much lower amounts of titanium and iron and larger amounts of aluminium and calcium. Confirmation of these general characteristics of lunar highland material has come from recent observations by the Apollo 15 Orbiter. The inferred mineralogy is 45 mole percent high anorthite plagioclase and the parent rocks have an estimated density of 2.94 g cm–3. The Surveyor 7 chemical composition is the principal contributor to present estimates of the overall chemical composition of the lunar surface.Presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Lunar Studies, Patras, Greece, September 14–25, 1971. This paper is an expanded and updated version of a paper presented at the Apollo 12 Lunar Science Conference, Houston, Texas, January 11–14, 1971, and published in the Proceedings of this Conference (Turkevich, 1971).  相似文献   

5.
We develop a method based on the samples from Apollo and Luna landing sites to determine lunar TiO2 content with Chang’E-1 interference imaging spectrometer (IIM) imagery. By analyzing the nonlinear relationship between the optical and compositional parameters of lunar soil samples, the method employs two Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to estimate the titanium abundance of the lunar surface. Developed with the soil compositions of the Apollo and Luna sample-return stations, the RMS (root mean square) error of our method is 0.24 wt% TiO2, and the correlation coefficient of the TiO2 values and our predicted ones is 99.72 %. Compared with the other 3 models, the method proposed in this paper exhibits a good performance for determining the chemical composition of the lunar surface. TiO2 maps of Sinus Iridum, part of the Marius Hills plateau, and part of Mare Smythii are produced using our method, which could be useful for future lunar missions.  相似文献   

6.
A grain of light‐blue sulfate material was reported in the lunar highlands regolith meteorite PCA 02007 (Satterwhite and Righter 2013). Allocated grains of that material are, in fact, aluminosilicate glass with a chemical composition like that of the bulk meteorite and other lunar highlands regoliths. The calcium sulfate detected in PCA 02007 was likely a surface coating, and reasonably of Antarctic (not lunar) origin.  相似文献   

7.
The chemical reactivity of lunar dust is an important topic of inquiry, of fundamental scientific value and of practical relevance to human exploration of the Moon. Lunar specimens brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts provide a key resource for ground-based studies which help to define the initial avenues of inquiry. Even among the limited samples obtained from equatorial exploration sites, however, chemical reactivity analyses indicates that lunar dust is heterogeneous, a finding that parallels heterogeneity revealed by remote sensing studies. The region-to-region variability of lunar dust argues that a full understanding of its chemical reactivity will require in situ analysis, on a region-to-region basis. The data from such investigations will help to shape our understanding of the potential for lunar dust toxicity, and will provide insight into the types of reactions that may occur with when lunar dust interacts with organic molecules on the surface of the Moon.  相似文献   

8.
The D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer on ESA's SMART-1 mission will provide the first global coverage of the lunar surface in X-rays, providing absolute measurements of elemental abundances. The instrument will be able to detect elemental Fe, Mg, Al and Si under normal solar conditions and several other elements during solar flare events. These data will allow for advances in several areas of lunar science, including an improved estimate of the bulk composition of the Moon, detailed observations of the lateral and vertical nature of the crust, chemical observations of the maria, investigations into the lunar regolith, and mapping of potential lunar resources. In combination with information to be obtained by the other instruments on SMART-1 and the data already provided by the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions, this information will allow for a more detailed look at some of the fundamental questions that remain regarding the origin and evolution of the Moon.  相似文献   

9.
Observations of the equatorial lunar sodium emission are examined to quantify the effect of precipitating ions on source rates for the Moon’s exospheric volatile species. Using a model of exospheric sodium transport under lunar gravity forces, the measured emission intensity is normalized to a constant lunar phase angle to minimize the effect of different viewing geometries. Daily averages of the solar Lyman α flux and ion flux are used as the input variables for photon-stimulated desorption (PSD) and ion sputtering, respectively, while impact vaporization due to the micrometeoritic influx is assumed constant. Additionally, a proxy term proportional to both the Lyman α and to the ion flux is introduced to assess the importance of ion-enhanced diffusion and/or chemical sputtering. The combination of particle transport and constrained regression models demonstrates that, assuming sputtering yields that are typical of protons incident on lunar soils, the primary effect of ion impact on the surface of the Moon is not direct sputtering but rather an enhancement of the PSD efficiency. It is inferred that the ion-induced effects must double the PSD efficiency for flux typical of the solar wind at 1 AU. The enhancement in relative efficiency of PSD due to the bombardment of the lunar surface by the plasma sheet ions during passages through the Earth’s magnetotail is shown to be approximately two times higher than when it is due to solar wind ions. This leads to the conclusion that the priming of the surface is more efficiently carried out by the energetic plasma sheet ions.  相似文献   

10.
The scientific value of unmanned rovers for continued lunar exploration is considered in light of Apollo findings which suggest that the Moon's surface is more heterogeneous than expected. A set of major questions and investigations involving composition, internal structure, and thermal history are presented that form a scientific rationale for use of unmanned rovers in the post-Apollo period of lunar exploration. Visual, petrologic, chemical and geophysical measurements that are essential for an unmanned rover traverse over previously unexplored lunar terrain are discussed. Unmanned rovers are well-suited for low-cost, low-risk preliminary reconnaissance where measurement of a few definitive parameters over a wide area is more important than obtaining a wide array of detailed results at a given site.  相似文献   

11.
The advanced Moon micro-imager experiment (AMIE) is the imaging system on board ESA mission to the Moon SMART-1; it makes use of a miniaturised detector and micro-processor electronics developed by SPACE X in the frame of the ESA technical programme. The AMIE micro-imager will provide high resolution CCD images of selected lunar areas and it will perform colour imaging through three filters at 750, 915 and 960 nm with a maximum resolution of 46 m/pixel at the perilune of 500 km. Specific scientific objectives will include (1) imaging of high latitude regions in the southern hemisphere, in particular the South Pole Aitken basin (SPA) and the permanently shadowed regions close to the South Pole, (2) determination of the photometric properties of the lunar surface from observations at different phase angles (physical properties of the regolith), (3) multi-band imaging for constraining the chemical and mineral composition of the surface, (4) detection and characterisation of lunar non-mare volcanic units, (5) study of lithological variations from impact craters and implications for crustal heterogeneity. The AMIE micro-imager will also support a Laser-link experiment to Earth, an On Board Autonomous Navigation investigation and a Lunar libration experiment coordinated with radio science measurements.  相似文献   

12.
A number of experiments carried in orbit on the Apollo 15 and 16 spacecraft were used in the compositional mapping of the lunar surface. The observations involved measurements of secondary (fluorescent) X-rays, gamma rays and alpha particle emissions. A large scale compositional map of over 20% of the lunar surface was obtained for the first time. It was possible to demonstrate significant chemical differences between the mare and the highlands, to find specific areas of high radioactivity and to learn something about the composition of the Moon's hidden side.Paper dedicated to Professor Harold C. Urey on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 29 April 1973.  相似文献   

13.
We present the results of computer simulation of the shadowing effect for three types of surface: (1) cratered, (2) formed by a random profile with Gaussian statistical height and slope distributions, and (3) a two-scale surface representing a cratered area that is complicated by small-scale random relief. The calculations are based on data on the distribution of lunar craters derived from the diameter/depth ratio and on the assumption of the equilibrium distribution of the crater population in the circumpolar areas of the lunar surface. We determined the characteristics of perpetually shaded areas of the lunar surface: the probability of the constant shadowing of an arbitrary surface point, the fraction of the perpetually shaded area as a function of selenographic latitude, the latitudinal dependence of the perpetually shaded area, and the total area of the perpetually shaded surface. The calculations showed that the presence of structural features of different scale on the lunar surface can considerably increase the estimate of the fraction of the perpetually shaded area compared to existing estimates.  相似文献   

14.
We have studied the feldspathic lunar meteorite Dhofar 1428 chemically and petrologically to better understand the evolution of the lunar surface. Dhofar 1428 is a feldspathic regolith breccia derived from the lunar highland. Bulk chemical and mineral compositions of Dhofar 1428 are similar to those of other feldspathic lunar meteorites. We found a few clasts of evolved lithologies, such as K‐rich plagioclases and quartz monzogabbro. Dhofar 1428 contains approximately 1 wt% of chondritic materials like CM chondrite on the basis of abundances of platinum group elements (Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, and Pt).  相似文献   

15.
Mineral mapping of the lunar surface is critical to understanding the Moon’s geological diversity and history, yet the global lunar abundance of minerals has not been mapped using hyperspectral data. The Interference Imaging Spectrometer (IIM) of Chang’E-1 mission obtained hyperspectral data of the global lunar surface within the wavelength of 480–960 nm in which major minerals can be discriminated by faint differences in 32 contiguous hyperspectral bands. The effect of space weathering produces multiple endmembers of lunar minerals by obscuring the pure spectra of minerals in different levels. In this study, the distributions of plagioclase, clinopyroxene and olivine on the global lunar surface were mapped with IIM hyperspectral data based on the modified Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) method considering the space weathering effect. The distribution of lunar space weathering levels was retrieved as a byproduct of mineral mapping. The mineral mapping results were compared with recent mapping results. Although the wavelength of IIM is limited, it shows that our results are basically consistent with the recent research at both global and local scales. The distribution of space weathering levels is also consistent with the map of optical maturity parameter (OMAT) in most parts of the global lunar surface, especially in the highlands. This study demonstrates that the modified MESMA method is an effective approach to quantitative mapping of the lunar minerals and space weathering levels using hyperspectral data. In the future, more minerals can be mapped with higher accuracy if hyperspectral data with a wider spectral range are used based on the method proposed in this study.  相似文献   

16.
We suggest a technique to determine the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface using artificial neural networks (ANNs). We demonstrate this powerful non-linear approach for prognosis of TiO2 abundance using Clementine UV-VIS mosaics and Lunar Soil Characterization Consortium data. The ANN technique allows one to study correlations between spectral characteristics of lunar soils and composition parameters without any restrictions on the character of these correlations. The advantage of this method in comparison with the traditional linear regression method and the Lucey et al. approaches is shown. The results obtained could be useful for the strategy of analyzing lunar data that will be acquired in incoming lunar missions especially in case of the Chandrayaan-1 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions.  相似文献   

17.
Each year the Moon is bombarded by about 106 kg of interplanetary micrometeoroids of cometary and asteroidal origin. Most of these projectiles range from 10 nm to about 1 mm in size and impact the Moon at 10–72 km/s speed. They excavate lunar soil about 1000 times their own mass. These impacts leave a crater record on the surface from which the micrometeoroid size distribution has been deciphered. Much of the excavated mass returns to the lunar surface and blankets the lunar crust with a highly pulverized and “impact gardened” regolith of about 10 m thickness. Micron and sub-micron sized secondary particles that are ejected at speeds up to the escape speed of 2300 m/s form a perpetual dust cloud around the Moon and, upon re-impact, leave a record in the microcrater distribution. Such tenuous clouds have been observed by the Galileo spacecraft around all lunar-sized Galilean satellites at Jupiter. The highly sensitive Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) onboard the LADEE mission will shed new light on the lunar dust environment. LADEE is expected to be launched in early 2013.Another dust related phenomenon is the possible electrostatic mobilization of lunar dust. Images taken by the television cameras on Surveyors 5, 6, and 7 showed a distinct glow just above the lunar horizon referred to as horizon glow (HG). This light was interpreted to be forward-scattered sunlight from a cloud of dust particles above the surface near the terminator. A photometer onboard the Lunokhod-2 rover also reported excess brightness, most likely due to HG. From the lunar orbit during sunrise the Apollo astronauts reported bright streamers high above the lunar surface, which were interpreted as dust phenomena. The Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites (LEAM) Experiment was deployed on the lunar surface by the Apollo 17 astronauts in order to characterize the lunar dust environment. Instead of the expected low impact rate from interplanetary and interstellar dust, LEAM registered hundreds of signals associated with the passage of the terminator, which swamped any signature of primary impactors of interplanetary origin. It was suggested that the LEAM events are consistent with the sunrise/sunset-triggered levitation and transport of charged lunar dust particles. Currently no theoretical model explains the formation of a dust cloud above the lunar surface but recent laboratory experiments indicate that the interaction of dust on the lunar surface with solar UV and plasma is more complex than previously thought.  相似文献   

18.
Abstract— Impact-induced comminution of planetary surfaces is pervasive throughout the solar system and occurs on submillimeter to global scales, resulting in comminution products that range from fine-grained surface soils, to massive, polymict ejecta deposits, to collisionally fragmented objects. Within this wide range of comminution products, we define regoliths in a narrow sense as materials that were processed by repetitive impacts to dimensional scales comparable to or smaller than that of component minerals of the progenitor rock(s). In this paper, we summarize a wide variety of impact experiments and other observations that were primarily intended to understand the evolution of regoliths on lunar basalt flows, and we discuss some of their implications for asteroidal surfaces. Cratering experiments in both rock and noncohesive materials, combined with photogeologic observations of the lunar surface, demonstrate that craters <500 m in diameter contribute most to the excavation of local bedrock for subsequent processing by micrometeorites. The overall excavation rate and, thus, growth rate of the debris layer decreases with time, because the increasingly thicker fragmental layer will prevent progressively larger projectiles from reaching bedrock. Typical growth rates for a 5 m thick lunar soil layer are initially (～≥3 Ga ago) a few mm/Ma and slowed to <1 mm/Ma at present. The coarse-grained crater ejecta are efficiently comminuted by collisional fragmentation processes, and the mean residence time of a 1 kg rock is typically 10 Ma. The actual comminution of either lithic or monomineralic detritus is highly mineral specific, with feldspar and mesostasis comminuting preferentially over pyroxene and olivine, thus resulting in mechanically fractionated fines, especially at grain sizes <20 μm. Such fractionated fines also participate preferentially in the shock melting of lunar soils, thus giving rise to “agglutinate” melts. As a consequence, agglutinate melts are systematically enriched in feldspar components relative to the bulk composition of their respective host soil(s). Compositionally homogeneous, impact derived glass beads in lunar soils seem to result from micrometeorite impacts on rock surfaces, reflecting lithic regolith components and associated mineral mixtures. Cumulatively, experimental and observational evidence from lunar mare soils suggests that regoliths derive substantially from the comminution of local bedrock; the addition of foreign, exotic components is not necessary to explain the modal and chemical compositions of diverse grain size fractions from typical lunar soils. Regoliths on asteroids are qualitatively different from those of the Moon. The modest impact velocities in the asteroid belt, some 5 km s?1, are barely sufficient to produce impact melts. Also, substantially more crater mass is being displaced on low-gravity asteroids compared to the Moon; collisional processing of surface boulders should therefore be more prominent in producing comminuted asteroid surfaces. These processes combine into asteroidal surface deposits that have suffered modest levels of shock metamorphism compared to the Moon. Impact melting does not seem to be a significant process under these conditions. However, the role of cometary particles encountering asteroid surfaces at presumably higher velocities has not been addressed in the past. Unfortunately, the asteroidal surface processes that seemingly modify the spectral properties of ordinary chondrites to match telescopically obtained spectra of S-type asteroids remain poorly understood at present, despite the extensive experimental and theoretical insights summarized in this report and our fairly mature understanding of lunar surface processes and regolith evolution.  相似文献   

19.
Possible models for the thermal evolution of the Moon are constrained by a wide assortment of lunar data. In this work, theoretical lunar temperature models are computed taking into account different initial conditions to represent possible accretion models and various abundances of heat sources to correspond to different compositions. Differentiation and convection are simulated in the numerical computational scheme.Models of the thermal evolution of the Moon that fit the chronology of igneous activity on the lunar surface, the stress history of the lunar lithosphere implied by the presence of mascons, and the surface concentrations of radioactive elements, involve extensive differentiation early in lunar history. This differentiation may be the result of rapid accretion and large-scale melting or of primary chemical layering during accretion. Differences in present-day temperatures for these two possibilities are significant only in the inner 1000 km of the Moon and are not resolvable with presently available data.If the Apollo 15 heat flow is a representative value, the average uranium concentration in the moon is 65±15 ppb. This is consistent with achondritic bulk composition (between howardites and eucrites) for the Moon.Paper dedicated to Professor Harold C. Urey on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 29 April 1973.  相似文献   

20.
Wenzhe Fa 《Icarus》2007,190(1):15-23
3He (helium-3) in the lunar regolith implanted by the solar wind is one of the most valuable resources because of its potential as a fusion fuel. The abundance of 3He in the lunar regolith is related to solar wind flux, lunar surface maturity and TiO2 content, etc. A model of solar wind flux, which takes account of variations due to shielding of the nearside when the Moon is in the Earth's magnetotail, is used to present a global distribution of relative solar wind flux over the lunar surface. Using Clementine UV/VIS multispectral data, the global distribution of lunar surface optical maturity (OMAT) and the TiO2 content in the lunar regolith are calculated. Based on Apollo regolith samples, a linear relation between 3He abundance and normalized solar wind flux, optical maturity, and TiO2 content is presented. To simulate the brightness temperature of the lunar surface, which is the mission of the Chinese Chang-E project's multichannel radiometers, a global distribution of regolith layer thickness is first empirically constructed from lunar digital elevation mapping (DEM). Then an inversion approach is presented to retrieve the global regolith layer thickness. It finally yields the total amount of 3He per unit area in the lunar regolith layer, which is related to the regolith layer thickness, solar wind flux, optical maturity and TiO2 content, etc. The global inventory of 3He is estimated as 6.50×108 kg, where 3.72×108 kg is for the lunar nearside and 2.78×108 kg is for the lunar farside.  相似文献   

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