Scientists in China and Germany have identified four possible landing sites for China’s first crewed mission to the moon in an area that has also been of interest to Nasa.
The Rimae Bode region on the lunar nearside is favoured for its diverse geological samples, including volcanic debris, for studying lunar volcanism and its relatively flat ground for safe astronaut access.
“Rimae Bode lies in an easily accessible, low-latitude, nearside location with generally flat, traversable terrain,” they wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy on Monday.
“Both the high scientific value and the favourable landing and exploration conditions make the Rimae Bode region a candidate for missions like the Nasa Constellation programme and China’s first crewed lunar mission.”
The Nasa programme was formulated in 2005 to return to the moon to establish an outpost and explore Mars, but was cancelled in 2010 because of severe budget overruns.
In the new study, the researchers from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, Guilin University of Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Münster College of Science used orbital images and measurements to study a targeted area of the Rimae Bode.
“Both the high scientific value and the favourable landing and exploration conditions make the Rimae Bode region a candidate for missions like the Nasa Constellation programme and China’s first crewed lunar mission.”
The Nasa programme was formulated in 2005 to return to the moon to establish an outpost and explore Mars, but was cancelled in 2010 because of severe budget overruns.
Months before it was cancelled, Nasa published a close-up image of a site “near a Nasa Constellation region of interest”. It shows a small fresh crater 230 metres (755 feet) wide with dark ejecta, or material thrown out from an impact or eruption, in the highlands near Rima Bode II, a mare unit that was also analysed and identified as one of the four feasible landing sites in the latest paper.
In the new study, the researchers from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, Guilin University of Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Münster College of Science used orbital images and measurements to study a targeted area of the Rimae Bode.
They examined the shape of the region’s channels and counted impact craters to reconstruct evidence of several separate volcanic events, with the earliest being an eruption about 3.2 billion to 3.7 billion years ago.
The team called the region “an exemplary site for investigating fundamental questions about lunar volcanism” because of its abundant mare basalts, river-like valleys formed from surface lava flows and deposits of volcanic materials.
Compared to robotic exploration, the scientists said astronauts on crewed missions could deploy complex scientific instruments on the lunar surface to collect data that could change our understanding of lunar geology and geophysics, as the Apollo missions did in the 1960s and 70s.
“A new crewed mission, more than 50 years later, would offer the opportunity to deploy similar or entirely new instruments, thus providing fresh constraints on lunar processes,” they said, referring to the geological, physical and chemical mechanisms driving the moon’s evolution from a molten body into the cratered, layered satellite seen today.
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