Aas 16-464 Lunar Advanced Radar Orbiter for Subsurface Sounding (Laross): Lava Tube Exploration Mission (original) (raw)
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Lunar Advanced Radar Orbiter for Subsurface Sounding (LAROSS): Lava Tube Exploration Mission
With the goal of expanding human presence beyond Earth, sub-surface empty lava tubes on other worlds form ideal candidates for creating a permanent habitation environment safe from cosmic radiation, microm-eteorite impacts and temperature extremes. In a step towards Mars exploration , the Moon offers the most favorable pathway for lava tube exploration. In-depth analysis of GRAIL gravity data has revealed several candidate empty lava tubes within the lunar maria. The goal of this investigation is a proposed subsurface radar sounding mission to explore the regions of interest and potentially confirm the presence and size of buried empty lava tubes under the lunar surface.
Detection of Intact Lava Tubes at Marius Hills on the Moon by SELENE (Kaguya) Lunar Radar Sounder
Intact lunar lava tubes offer a pristine environment to conduct scientific examination of the Moon's composition and potentially serve as secure shelters for humans and instruments. We investigated the SELENE Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) data at locations close to the Marius Hills Hole (MHH), a skylight potentially leading to an intact lava tube, and found a distinctive echo pattern exhibiting a precipitous decrease in echo power, subsequently followed by a large second echo peak that may be evidence for the existence of a lava tube. The search area was further expanded to 13.00–15.00°N, 301.85–304.01°E around the MHH, and similar LRS echo patterns were observed at several locations. Most of the locations are in regions of underground mass deficit suggested by GRAIL gravity data analysis. Some of the observed echo patterns are along rille A, where the MHH was discovered, or on the southwest underground extension of the rille.
Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity
NASA's GRAIL mission employed twin spacecraft in polar orbits around the Moon to measure the lunar gravity field at unprecedentedly high accuracy and resolution. The low spacecraft altitude in the extended mission enables the detection of small-scale surface or subsurface features. We analyzed these data for evidence of empty lava tubes beneath the lunar maria. We developed two methods, gradiometry and cross correlation, to isolate the target signal of long, narrow, sinuous mass deficits from a host of other features present in the GRAIL data. Here we report the discovery of several strong candidates that are either extensions of known lunar rilles, collocated with the recently discovered " skylight " caverns, or underlying otherwise unremarkable surfaces. Owing to the spacecraft polar orbits, our techniques are most sensitive to east-west trending near-surface structures and empty lava tubes with minimum widths of several kilometers, heights of hundreds of meters, and lengths of tens of kilometers.
GEOPHYSICS, 2007
The Craters of the Moon ͑COM͒ lava field has a multiple eruptive history. Burial of older flows has resulted in complex subsurface stratigraphy. For the older eruptive periods, the locations of source vents and the extension of lava flows are either speculative or unknown, because they are buried under more recent pyroclastics. In this study, we used surface and subsurface backscatter characteristics of the P-and L-band polarimetric airborne synthetic aperture radar ͑AIRSAR͒ data and ground-penetrating radar ͑GPR͒ soundings to resolve different exposed and buried lava flows. Our primary objective is to define the most effective polarization and frequency for mapping, resolving, and characterizing different lava types in the volcanic field. Polarimetric analysis of AIR-SAR images from COM allows a clear recognition of the aa and pahoehoe lava types as a result of the variability in their roughness. Our results suggest that the HV cross-polarized, AIRSAR L-band is capable of producing a detailed map delineating surface lava with different surface backscattering properties. An accuracy assessment utilizing the geological map of the Inferno Cone area was performed to quantify the reliability of differentiating lava types and mapping the lava flows extension below loose pyroclastics using AIRSAR data. Results shows an ability of P-band SAR to map buried structures up to 3 meters deep under loose cinder and ash deposits, resolving buried fissures, outcrops, and lava flows that were validated with ground-truth GPR surveys. The techniques used in this study provide a tool to assess volcanic hazards in remote and inaccessible places. Also it could be an aid in the study of other planets and planetary bodies in the solar system.
First look by the Yutu-2 rover at the deep subsurface structure at the lunar farside
Nature Communications
The unequal distribution of volcanic products between the Earth-facing lunar side and the farside is the result of a complex thermal history. To help unravel the dichotomy, for the first time a lunar landing mission (Chang’e-4, CE-4) has targeted the Moon’s farside landing on the floor of Von Kármán crater (VK) inside the South Pole-Aitken (SPA). We present the first deep subsurface stratigraphic structure based on data collected by the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover during the initial nine months exploration phase. The radargram reveals several strata interfaces beneath the surveying path: buried ejecta is overlaid by at least four layers of distinct lava flows that probably occurred during the Imbrium Epoch, with thicknesses ranging from 12 m up to about 100 m, providing direct evidence of multiple lava-infilling events that occurred within the VK crater. The average loss tangent of mare basalts is estimated at 0.0040-0.0061.
Strategies for Detection of Buried Empty Lava Tubes with GRAIL Data
AIAA SPACE 2014 Conference and Exposition, 2014
The success of the NASA's GRAIL mission -a twin spacecraft formation revolving around the Moon in a quasi-circular polar orbit -currently provides the highest resolution and most accurate gravity data for the Moon. The low altitude at which some of these data were collected in the GRAIL extended mission potentially allows the detection of small-scale surface or subsurface features. This analysis is focused on the detection of the presence and extent of empty lava tubes beneath the mare surface.
Lunar and Martian Lava Tube Exploration as Part of an Overall Scientific Survey
2009
Andrew W. Daga, M.M. Battler, J.D. Burke, I.A. Crawford, R.J. Léveillé, S.B. Simon, L.T. Tan. 1 University of North Dakota and Andrew Daga & Associates, LLC, 111 Mountain Laurel Lane, Malvern, PA 19355, Centre for Planetary Science & Exploration, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, Canada, N6A 3K7 mbattle@uwo.ca, The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina, Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106 jdburke@caltech.edu, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, i.crawford@ucl.ac.uk, Canadian Space Agency, 6767 route de l’Aéroport, Saint-Hubert, QC, Canada, J3Y 8Y9, richard.leveille@asccsa.gc.ca, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, sbs8@uchicago.edu, University College London Chadwick Building, Gower Street Lo don,WC1E 6BT, UK l.tan@ucl.ac.uk.