Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p43a..01j&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P43A-01
Mathematics
Logic
[5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [5410] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Composition, [5420] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Impact Phenomena, Cratering, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon
Scientific paper
The MoonRise mission, now in a phase A concept study, would launch in 2016 and return samples from the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA) in 2017. These samples would be used to (1) determine the chronology of SPA and test the “cataclysm” hypothesis for bombardment of the inner Solar System some hundreds of millions of years following planetary accretion, (2) investigate the deep crust and upper mantle of the Moon to better understand planetary differentiation, and (3) provide ground truth for orbital remote sensing and geophysics of the SPA basin to better understand giant basin-forming impact processes and the effects of such impacts on an early-formed planetary crust. The key objective that drives site selection for the MoonRise mission is to obtain rock samples that crystallized from the SPA impact-melt complex to date the formation of the basin. Many large impacts, however, occurred subsequent to SPA formation, and volcanic lavas erupted into the interior of SPA over several hundred million years, producing a complex set of geologic formations. Fortunately, the very same impact process also generates a rich diversity of rock types in the regolith that provide a record of all these events. Our focus for landing site selection is in the interior of SPA where the distinctive geochemical signature is strongest. This compositional signature, coupled with modeling of impact ejecta ballistic sedimentation and distribution, ensures that landing sites and sampling locations in the interior of SPA will contain abundant rock fragments derived from the original SPA melt sheet. The wealth of recent remote sensing data provides context to evaluate geologic formations and to establish provenance for the samples. Admixture of impactites derived from younger basins such as Apollo, Poincaré, Planck, Ingenii, Orientale and Schrödinger, as well as other large impact craters, will contribute to a chronology that is bounded by the earliest and the latest of the recognized lunar impact basins. Moreover, ejecta from craters and basins that lie beyond the SPA transient cavity will have ejected some of the material at that location back toward the interior of the basin, contributing to the diversity of fragmental rock material in the basin interior deposits. Although many locations are suitable for landing and sampling, current thinking is that a location relatively close to the center of SPA and near one of the large interior craters such as Bose, Bhabha, or Alder, ranging from Nectarian to Upper Imbrian age, will provide the best opportunity to obtain materials excavated from the underlying SPA melt complex. VIS-NIR spectral data from Kaguya and Chandrayaan-1 will be used to identify specific locations where key crustal materials can be sampled.
Gaddis Lisa R.
Haruyama Junji
Head James W.
Jaumann Ralf
Jolliff Brad L.
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