High-priority lunar landing sites for in situ and sample return studies of polar volatiles Myriam Lemelin a,n , David M. Blair b , Carolyn E. Roberts c , Kirby D. Runyon d , Daniela Nowka e , David A. Kring f a Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, 1680 East-West Rd, POST 602, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA b Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA c Department of Geology, University at Buffalo, 411 Cooke Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA d Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA e Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institut, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany f Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, TX 77058, USA article info Article history: Received 16 March 2014 Received in revised form 26 June 2014 Accepted 4 July 2014 Available online 16 July 2014 Keywords: Moon Volatiles Pole Landing site Remote sensing Spatial analysis abstract Our understanding of the Moon has advanced greatly over the last several decades thanks to analyses of Apollo samples and lunar meteorites, and recent lunar orbital missions. Notably, it is now thought that the lunar poles may be much more enriched in H 2 O and other volatile chemical species than the equatorial regions sampled during the Apollo missions. The equatorial regions sampled, themselves, contain more H 2 O than previously thought. A new lunar mission to a polar region is therefore of great interest; it could provide a measure of the sources and processes that deliver volatiles while also evaluating the potential in situ resource utilization value they may have for human exploration. In this study, we determine the optimal sites for studying lunar volatiles by conducting a quantitative GIS-based spatial analysis of multiple relevant datasets. The datasets include the locations of permanently shadowed regions, thermal analyses of the lunar surface, and hydrogen abundances. We provide maps of the lunar surface showing areas of high scientific interest, including five regions near the lunar north pole and seven regions near the lunar south pole that have the highest scientific potential according to rational search criteria. At two of these sites—a region we call the “Intercrater Polar Highlands” (IPH) near the north pole, and Amundsen crater near the south pole—we provide a more detailed assessment of landing sites, sample locations, and exploration strategies best suited for future human or robotic exploration missions. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Following the establishment of the Vision for Space Exploration in 2004, NASA commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop guidelines and a prioritized set of tasks for future lunar exploration missions. In 2007, the NRC published a report, entitled “The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon” (NRC, 2007), which provides a framework for continued robotic and human exploration of the Moon. This report identifies eight scientific concepts to be addressed: the bombardment history of the inner solar system (concept 1), the structure and composition of the lunar interior (concept 2), the diversity of lunar rocks (concept 3), the lunar poles and volatiles (concept 4), the lunar volcanism (concept 5), the impact process (concept 6), the regolith processes and weath- ering (concept 7) and the processes involved with the atmosphere and dust environment of the Moon (concept 8). In this paper, we provide a detailed study of concept 4—“The lunar poles are special environments that may bear witness to the volatile flux over the latter part of solar system history”—and its five underlying science goals, as defined by the NRC (2007) (Table 1). Our primary objective is to determine target sites where science goals 4a–4e can be addressed, i.e., where volatile chemical species (“volatiles”) are likely to be present on or near the surface of the Moon, such that they can be studied in-situ or via sample return. The science goals outlined in Table 1 (NRC, 2007) provide the structure in which we carry out this search. Such volatile deposits are most likely to exist near the lunar poles, in regions that are permanently shadowed due to the very low obliquity of the Moon relative to the ecliptic (Spudis et al., 2008). These permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are prime targets for exploration of volatiles, as they Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pss Planetary and Space Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2014.07.002 0032-0633/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 808 349 6636. E-mail address: mlemelin@hawaii.edu (M. Lemelin). Planetary and Space Science 101 (2014) 149–161