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"Lunar surface"
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Candidate Landing Sites for the Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) Rashid-1 Rover
Launched in December 2022 onboard the Hakuto-R lunar lander, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) Rashid-1 rover experienced an unsuccessful landing on the lunar surface on April 25th, 2023. The mission’s prime landing site was Atlas crater, a 87 km diameter floor-fractured crater emplaced within the lunar highlands in the northeastern quadrant of the Moon. This paper describes the landing site selection procedure for the ELM Rashid-1 rover, from technical requirements that led to the selection of four broad areas of interest, to the placement of candidate landing ellipses based primarily on slope analysis and science interest. The rock abundance and presence of boulders were analyzed to verify the suitability of the target location for landing. Geological context as well as high resolution imagery and topography are presented for the four selected landing sites: Atlas crater (prime), Sinus Iridum, Oceanus Procellarum, and Lacus Somniorum (back-ups). Terrain characteristics and key science questions to be addressed at these locations are discussed, emphasizing the high scientific value of these locations for future lunar missions.
Journal Article
Onboard and Ground Processing of the Wide-Field Cameras of the Rashid-1 Rover of the Emirates Lunar Mission
The Rashid-1 lunar rover represented the first attempt by the United Arab Emirates to explore the surface of the Moon. The mission of Rashid-1 was supposed to begin only a few hours following the planned landing by the iSpace Hakuto-R M1 lunar lander inside the Atlas crater of the Moon. Unfortunately, the lander was unable to successfully complete the landing maneuver and it crashed on the surface of the Moon destroying both itself and its payloads in the process. In this paper, we present the characterization of the optical image acquisition systems onboard the Rashid-1 rover which consisted of two wide-field (
82
∘
×
82
∘
) identical cameras aptly named CAM-1 and CAM-2 and mounted on the front and back of the rover respectively. Additionally, a third high resolution optical imager (CAM-M) with a spatial resolution of approximately 27 μm/pixel was placed on the front of the rover and was tasked with obtaining what would have been, at that time, the highest resolution in-situ images ever taken of the lunar regolith. We discuss the basic calibration processes such as the thermal, radiometric, color, distortion and perspective corrections of the three optical systems. We also provide an overview of both the onboard as well as the ground processing steps that were set up to receive and examine the images the rover would have sent from the lunar surface.
Journal Article
The Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry (LND) Experiment on Chang’E 4
Chang’E 4 is the first mission to the far side of the Moon and consists of a lander, a rover, and a relay spacecraft. Lander and rover were launched at 18:23 UTC on December 7, 2018 and landed in the von Kármán crater at 02:26 UTC on January 3, 2019. Here we describe the Lunar Lander Neutron & Dosimetry experiment (LND) which is part of the Chang’E 4 Lander scientific payload. Its chief scientific goal is to obtain first active dosimetric measurements on the surface of the Moon. LND also provides observations of fast neutrons which are a result of the interaction of high-energy particle radiation with the lunar regolith and of their thermalized counterpart, thermal neutrons, which are a sensitive indicator of subsurface water content.
Journal Article
The Microscope Camera CAM-M on-Board the Rashid-1 Lunar Rover
The microscope imager CAM-M was developed for the Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) program. This camera is part of the
Rashid-1
lunar rover scientific instrument package. It is equipped with a three color RGB CMOS detector, delivering a spatial sampling varying between 20 and 27
μ
m per pixel across its field of view. The viewing geometry of this camera was chosen such that its field of view on the ground is slightly ahead of the rover, thereby showing the undisturbed lunar surface. Its multi-purpose illumination system allows to acquire images in shadowed areas but as well to support the rover drive operations. Since CAM-M does not contain any moving parts, its imaging performance depends on suitable positioning of the rover with respect to the field of view. Hence, CAM-M should be seen as a scouting instrument which acquires images at every possible stop along its traverse. This paper provides a summarizing description of the instruments design, its operation concepts, and to illustrate this camera’s scientific capabilities by means of data collected during on-ground testing. Due to the unsuccessful landing attempt of the lunar lander which was carrying the
Rashid-1
rover to the Moon, CAM-M was unable to collect any data on the lunar surface.
Journal Article
Sensing Lunar Dust Density Using Radio Science Signals of Opportunity
Previous lunar missions, such as Surveyor, Apollo, and the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), have played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of the lunar exosphere’s dynamics and its relationship with solar wind flux. The insights gained from these missions have laid a strong foundation for our current knowledge. However, due to insufficient near-surface observations, the scientific community has faced challenges in interpreting the phenomena of lunar dust lofting and levitation. This paper introduces the concept of signals of opportunity (SoOP), which utilizes radio occultation (RO) to retrieve the near-surface dust density profile on the Moon. Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) radio science beacon (RSB) signals are used to demonstrate this method. By mapping the concentration of lunar near-surface dust using RO, we aim to enhance our understanding of how charged lunar dust interacts with surrounding plasma, thereby contributing to future research in this field and supporting human exploration of the Moon. Additionally, the introduced SoOP will be able to provide observational constraints to physical model development related to lunar surface particle sputtering and the reactions of near-surface dust in the presence of solar wind and electrostatically charged dust grains.
Journal Article
LIFT OFF! ARTEMIS ROCKET LAUNCH KICKS OFF NEW ERA OF HUMAN MOON EXPLORATION
Back to the Moon After the Apollo programme ended, NASA focused on building and flying the space shuttle, which operated between 1981 and 2011, and constructing and working aboard the International Space Station, which has been permanently occupied since 2000. Most significantly, the aerospace company SpaceX in Hawthorne, California - which NASA has contracted to supply a crewed lunar lander called Starship - will need to demonstrate that the giant ship is capable of carrying astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface. Getting rock samples from the crater would allow researchers to pinpoint when the collision occurred, thus anchoring a key point in the history of the early Solar System.
Journal Article
Study on the variation characteristics of lunar surface radiation dose over the past five years based on LND
To systematically assess the surface radiation environment on the lunar far side and its implications for crewed lunar missions, this study utilizes data from the Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry Experiment (LND) onboard the Chang'e-4 mission. We analyzed 44 effective lunar daytime observation datasets collected from January 2019 to March 2024, aiming to uncover the long-term evolution of the lunar surface radiation dose and its correlation with solar activity. The structural composition of the LND detector and its multi-channel particle identification and energy spectrum measurement principles are described in detail. To address gaps in the data, historical radiation dose series were reconstructed by using linear and multiple regression methods. The F10.7 solar radio flux index was introduced as a physical parameter to gauge solar activity intensity, and its dynamic relationship with the lunar surface radiation dose was systematically analyzed. The study found a significant negative correlation between the total lunar surface radiation dose and the F10.7 index, with an average equivalent dose rate of 13.95 μGy/h, and approximately 22% of the total radiation dose attributed to neutral particles, a proportion that remains stable across different solar cycles. Further analysis of LND measurements during solar particle events (SPEs) indicates that SPE outbreaks cause the radiation dose rate on the lunar surface to spike by 10 to 100 times, followed by an exponential decay, mainly reflecting the dynamics of secondary neutron moderation. This research not only enriches the observational data of the lunar far side's radiation environment but also provides critical scientific support for the design of radiation protection and real-time warning systems for future crewed lunar missions.
Journal Article
Enhanced Image Processing for the CASPEX Cameras Onboard the Rashid-1 Rover
The
Rashid-1
rover, being the main component of the Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) developed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), was launched in late 2022 on-board the Hakuto lunar lander. The scientific objectives of the rover were to investigate the regolith formations of our natural satellite and analyze the geology of its landing area. To perform its investigations,
Rashid-1
carried two wide-angle cameras (CAM-1 and CAM-2) and a narrow-angle microscope camera (CAM-M) equipped with Bayer color filter arrays. The mission was however unsuccessful due to a lander failure during lunar descent which caused the loss of the payload. Despite this drawback, significant insights into exploration rover imaging have been gained through the extensive work done prior to launch to achieve the highest image quality from the on-board cameras, and the resulting CASPIP software package will be used for upcoming rover missions. This paper presents the CAM-1 and CAM-2 instruments and the planned advanced image products. In the first part, we provide a detailed presentation of the calibration of the instruments including their optical parameters, characterization of the detector in term of flat-field, optical ghosts, dark current, spectral sensitivities and distortion. The second part of the paper deals with colorimetry, focusing on the colorimetric characterization of the instrument as well as a description of the correction applied to obtain images expressed in the standard color space
CIE XYZ
and displayed properly in sRGB. Finally, the third part describes advanced image products developed to assist experts (geologists, navigation engineers). It includes a tool for distance visualization directly inside an image, and the creation of 3D images through stereoscopic reconstruction.
Journal Article