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Rover Traverse Planning to Support a Lunar Polar Volatiles MissionStudies of lunar polar volatile depositsare of interest for scientific purposes to understandthe nature and evolution of the volatiles, and alsofor exploration reasons as a possible in situ resource toenable long term exploration and settlement of theMoon. Both theoretical and observational studies havesuggested that significant quantities of volatiles exist inthe polar regions, although the lateral and horizontaldistribution remains unknown at the km scale and finerresolution. A lunar polar rover mission is required tofurther characterize the distribution, quantity, andcharacter of lunar polar volatile deposits at thesehigher spatial resolutions. Here we present two casestudies for NASA’s Resource Prospector (RP) missionconcept for a lunar polar rover and utilize this missionarchitecture and associated constraints to evaluatewhether a suitable landing site exists to support an RPflight mission.
Document ID
20150022104
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Heldmann, J.L.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Colaprete, A.C.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Elphic, R. C.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Bussey, B.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
McGovern, A.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Beyer, R.
(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Inst. Mountain View, CA, United States)
Lees, D.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Deans, M. C.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Otten, N.
(Carnegie-Mellon Univ. Pittsburgh, PA, United States)
Jones, H.
(Carnegie-Mellon Univ. Pittsburgh, PA, United States)
Wettergreen, D.
(Carnegie-Mellon Univ. Pittsburgh, PA, United States)
Date Acquired
December 1, 2015
Publication Date
October 20, 2015
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN27284
Meeting Information
Meeting: Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Croup
Location: Columbia, MD
Country: United States
Start Date: October 20, 2015
End Date: October 22, 2015
Sponsors: Universities Space Research Association
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
NASAaEuro(TM)s Resource Prospector (RP) mission
Moon
volatiles in the polar regions
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