Targets for LRO Options

[PhilHorzempa]

You can imagine this to be a companion thread to the one requesting suggestions
for MRO targets on Mars.

The LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) is set to launch in a little over a year
from now. There was to a be a site selection workshop in May 2007, next month, but
I see now that it has been cancelled. Therefore, it appears that it is up to us, the UMSF
Community to take up the baton and help NASA out. It was done for New Horizons at Jupiter
and was very productive.

So, what are the sites that you would like to see imaged at 0.5 meter resolution by
LROC, LRO's High-Resolution camera?

My first suggestion would be to re-photograph the Surveyor 1 landing site to compare
it with the images obtained by Lunar Orbiter 3.

My second suggestion would be to photograph the Surveyor 6 landing area. This
should image S-6 itself, but even more interesting, it may capture images of
Surveyor 4, which should be only a mile or so away. This would help to
determine whatever happened to S-4, which abruptly stopped transmitting just
short of touchdown.



Another Phil

[Phil Stooke]

That's not really true. The surface is constantly subjected to micrometeorite sandblasting and mini-meteorite 'gardening' - processes which don't affect Mars, for instance. Slow, but acting over very long periods.

On top of that, because almost every feature, and every recent feature, is impact-generated, it's covered with or consists largely of unconsolidated rubble. Tycho's central peaks, for instance, though uplifted crust, must be badly shattered and partly covered with fall-back ejecta. The Apennines at Hadley, ditto. So they will tend to assume angle-of-repose type slopes from the start. And to add to the effect, every mid-sized or larger impact creates a seismic event which further subdues all that loose rubble.

Not only that - I would suggest that most steep slopes on Earth are created by erosion. Lack of erosion on other worlds reduces opportunities for steep topography.