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. 2023 Sep 9;26(10):107853.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107853. eCollection 2023 Oct 20.

Sverdrup-Henson crater: A candidate location for the first lunar South Pole settlement

Giovanni Leone  1 , Caitlin Ahrens  2 , Jarmo Korteniemi  3 , Daniele Gasparri  1 , Akos Kereszturi  4 , Alexey Martynov  5 , Gene Walter Schmidt  6 , Giuseppe Calabrese  7 , Jari Joutsenvaara  3   8   9
Affiliations

Sverdrup-Henson crater: A candidate location for the first lunar South Pole settlement

Giovanni Leone et al. iScience. .

Abstract

Robotic and manned exploration of the Moon is the next target in Solar System exploration. The availability of in situ resources such as water ice, iron oxides, helium-3, and rare earth elements, combined with permanently sunlit areas, provides the opportunity for the first settlement, either human or robotic, on the Moon. We used several selection criteria (abundance of water ice, the slope of terrain, usable energy sources, communications, and base expandability) to identify a suitable area for a future base in the southern polar crater Sverdrup-Henson. Due to the higher abundance of water ice, we found that the Sverdrup-Henson site is better suited to host a base than the nearby craters de Gerlache and Shackleton. The crater floor is partly in permanent shadow and exhibits numerous signatures of water ice. Since water ice is essential for rocket fuel production and human survival, its presence is necessary for a first settlement. Sverdrup-Henson has a flat floor ideal for building and safe traversing, is accessible from the surrounding intercrater plains, and has nearby locations suitable for communications and solar power production. Thus, the Sverdrup-Henson site holds great potential for future missions. We propose further exploration of this area through in situ measurements to better constrain available resources.

Keywords: Astronomy; Multidisciplinary design optimization; Space sciences.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Regional map of the study area (blue dashed line), indicating the craters Sverdrup, Henson, Unnamed Crater, de Gerlache, Shackleton, and Malapert Massif The red lines enclose PSRs. The yellow dots represent the ice exposure points as constrained by the Chandrayaan-1 M3 instrument (Li et al.8). Basemap: LRO LROC-WAC Global Mosaic at 100 m/pixel.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Water resources and detailed topography of Sverdrup crater (A) Detailed color Hillshade LOLA DEM South Pole map (over the LRO LROC-WAC Global Mosaic at 100 m/pixel) of the location of the proposed human (or robotic) base/settlement (red square), the white dashed lines indicate the lines of sight and wireless connection from the solar panels and antennas located on the surrounding hills/crater rims to the base, the white contour lines indicate the PSRs. (B) Blowup of the base area with LRO LROC-NAC mosaic at 13.75 m/pixel, the yellow line indicates the shortest path to the PSRs where the ice exposure points (yellow dots) are located. (C) topographic profile along the yellow path shown in panel B. (D) topographic profile along the green path between Sverdrup and the Unnamed Crater shown in panel A. (E) Additional blow-up of the white rectangle shown in panel B, LROC NAC Buffered PSR Mosaic (v2) South. Resolution: 9.86 m/pixel.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Map of iron oxide abundance Regional map of the polar iron oxide (FeO) abundance as derived by the interpolation between reflectance data at 1064 nm from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) and the 955.5/752.8 nm reflectance ratio from the Kaguya Spectral Profiler (SP) (from Lemelin et al., 2017). Basemap: LRO LROC-WAC Global Mosaic at 100 m/pixel.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Map of regional slope LOLA slope colorized map. Basemap: LRO LROC-WAC Global Mosaic at 100 m/pixel.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Map of illumination with human base NAC Percentage-Based South Pole Illumination Map (100 m/pixel).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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