NASA has announced the selection of several Lunar Science Sortie Concept Studies for potential scientific payloads with future Lunar Missions. The Beagle 2 scientific package was one of those chosen for study. Near the beginning of the next decade will see the launch of scientific payloads to the lunar surface to begin laying the foundations for the return to the moon in the Vision for Space Exploration. Shortly thereafter, astronauts will return to the lunar surface with the ability to place scientific packages on the surface that will provide information about lunar resources and compositions of materials in permanently shadowed regions of the moon (1). One of the important questions which must be answered early in the program is whether there are lunar resources which would facilitate "living off the land" and not require the transport of resources and consumables from Earth (2). The Beagle science package developed to seek the signatures of life on Mars is the ideal payload (3) to use on the lunar surface for determining the nature of hydrogen, water and lunar volatiles found in the polar regions which could support the Vision for Space Exploration.
Beagle 2 the Moon: An Experimental Package to Measure Polar Ice and Volatiles in Permanently Shadowed Areas or Beneath the Lunar Surface
39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ; 2008 ; League City, TX, United States
2008-03-10
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
The Physical State of Lunar Soil in the Permanently Shadowed Craters of the Moon
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010
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