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POSSIBLE LANDING SITES FOR FUTURE LUNAR MISSIONS IN THE AREA OF THE NORTHERN POLE OF THE MOON
Abstract
Currently, the southern polar region of the Moon is considered as the priority landing area for the planned lunar mission Luna-25 (Moon-Globe). Nevertheless, in this paper we have examined some areas in the North Pole region of the Moon as possible landing sites for future lunar missions. For a research we have chosen some areas located in the northern polar region: area of a crater Peary (88,9?N, 32?E), area in vicinity of Rozhdestvenskiy U crater (84,9 В° N, 152 В° E) and a Nansen F crater (84,95 В° N, 62,44 В° E). These areas are located in the immediate vicinity of the North pole of the Moon. In the same way, in all these regions, increased hydrogen content was detected from LP and LRO probes. In this paper we investigated the thermal and illumination conditions and visibility of the Earth in these areas. Also, we studied the possibility of the existence of water ice deposits on the surface in permanently shaded areas and in subsurface layer of regolith in potential landing sites. As a result, we identified several possible landing ellipses of future lunar missions in the area of these regions.
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