Sample Return from South Pole-Aitken Basin

Details Sample Return from South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return from South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jan 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002mbns.conf...13d&link_type=abstract

The Moon Beyond 2002: Next Steps in Lunar Science and Exploration, p. 13

Physics

Sample Return Missions, Lunar Surface, Lunar Exploration, Lunar Geology, Meteorite Craters, Meteorites, Ejecta, Lunar Maria

Scientific paper

The South Pole-Aitken Basin is the oldest and largest of the lunar impact basins that formed prior to 3.9 by ago. The impact may have penetrated several hundred kilometers through the crust and perhaps into an ancient mantle. The original crust was stripped off and emplaced as impact ejecta beyond the rim of the basin, while the interior of the basin was filled by subcrustal rocks, probably in the form of breccias and/or impact melts. Mare volcanism occurred locally within the Basin. The South Pole-Aitken event is significantly older than the oldest mare basalts that have been dated but it is not known whether the basin is significantly older than the front side mare basins. Several multi-ring impact basins formed within it, which redistributed rocks within the South Pole-Aitken Basin. South Pole-Aitken Basin sample return has two major objectives: (1) determine the range of rock types that were excavated by the event and what classes of subcrustal rocks were involved; (2) determine the age of the basin. A cost-constrained mission was proposed to NASA's Discovery Program in 2000 with the objective of landing at a well-chosen site and collecting about 1 kg of material, mostly fragments between 1 mm and 1 cm, by sieving up to one hundred kilograms of regolith over a six day period. A suite of fragments is anticipated that would contain primarily locally-derived rocks, with some fragments representing more distant sources. The mission fit into the scale, timing and cost constraints of the Discovery program, but was not selected for further study at that time.

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