In light of the high interests in the lunar exploration, it is important to expand the knowledge of the lunar environmental conditions. The important lunar environmental conditions include: temperature variation, radiation, lack of atmosphere and pressure, meteoroid impact, lunar gravitational field, dust, and moonquakes. All of these conditions pose a risk to lunar systems or lunar structures. The Moon also has various geophysical features on its surface (as well as underground) that might impact design, development, and testing of lunar systems or structures. Geophysical features include: lava tubes, peaks of eternal light, and permanently shadowed areas. An understanding of lunar environmental conditions is important in the derivation of requirements for the design and testing of lunar systems and structures. The scientific results and data obtained from past, on-going, and recently-launched lunar missions have major impacts on our understanding of the extreme lunar environment. In this paper, important aspects of scientific results from the following missions will be presented: NASA’s lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO)–launched on June 18, 2009; NASA’s lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer (LADEE)–launched on September 6, 2013; NASA’s gravity recovery and interior laboratory (GRAIL)–launched on September 10, 2011; and China's Lunar Lander and Rover Missions: primarily the Chang’e-4 mission.
Impact of Recent Lunar Missions on the Understanding of Lunar Environment
17th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments ; 2021 ; Virtual Conference
Earth and Space 2021 ; 931-943
2021-04-15
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
NTIS | 1992
|SAE Technical Papers | 1966
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