[meteorite-list] SMART-1 Views The Edge of Luna Incognita: Mars on the Moon?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 09:05:47 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200703021705.JAA24770_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMEYGN0LYE_index_0.html

SMART-1 views the edge of Luna Incognita: Mars on the Moon?
European Space Agency
1 March 2007

SMART-1 has investigated lunar areas at the edge of Luna Incognita. This
area near the lunar poles can be used for lunar science studies, or even
to prepare for human bases on the Moon and on Mars.
 
Mankind did not see the land called Luna Incognita, until the first
probes sent images of the lunar farside.
 
Plaskett crater sits close to the Moon's north pole, on the edge of Luna
Incognita. Plaskett has a diameter of 109 kilometres and displays a
central peak. This peak was formed during the crater's formation and is
composed of rocks, originally from beneath the Moon's surface, which
were melted and thrown up by the impact. As they rose above the surface
they 'froze' and formed the peak. By analysing such central peaks,
planetary scientists can deduce the vertical composition of the Moon's
subsurface regions.

Plaskett crater could play a key role in preparing humans for their
eventual journeys to Mars. On such a mission, Earth would dwindle to a
point and the astronauts would lose the familiar view of their home
planet. From the lunar near side the Earth is a brilliant object, four
times wider than the full Moon seen from Earth. The Earth seems to
wobble in the sky due to a lunar motion called libration. From the lunar
poles libration takes the Earth below the horizon for about half the month.

>From Plaskett, on the far side of the Moon, the Earth can only be seen
from the crater's northern rim for just a few days during a few months
every year.

"A human outpost there, on the edge of Luna Incognita, would allow us to
study the effects of Earth-deprivation on a crew in a controlled way,"
says Bernard Foing, SMART-1's Project Scientist.

"It will allow us to simulate Mars operations and isolation, on the
Moon, at a safe distance from a human base at the north pole."

Note to editors
 
Launched in September 2003, SMART-1 ended its mission through lunar
impact on 3 September 2006. The huge data sets it provided are and will
be analysed by lunar and planetary scientists, and provide a very
important legacy in the history of lunar exploration.
 
 
For more information
 
Bernard H. Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
Email: bernard.foing _at_ esa.int

Jean-Luc Josset, AMIE Principal Investigator, SPACE-X Space Exploration
Institute
Email: jean-luc.josset _at_ space-x.ch
Received on Fri 02 Mar 2007 12:05:47 PM PST