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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2024 | Viewed by 3819

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jianqing Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA
Interests: lunar regolith properties and shallow structure

Prof. Dr. Jianzhong Liu
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China
Interests: lunar and deep space exploration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Moon has captivated humans since we first set eyes on it as the most prominent object in the night sky. The mysteries of the origin and evolution of the Moon continue to attract the interest and excitement of scientists and engineers worldwide. Since the first spacecraft, Luna 2, reached the lunar surface in 1959, humans have conducted more than 100 lunar exploration missions, culminating when Apollo astronauts stepped on the Moon in 1969–1972. In the 21^st century, more probes with new detection technology have been deployed, including SMART-1; SELENE; Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2; LCROSS; LRO; GRAIL; LADEE; and CE-1, CE-2, CE-3, CE-4, and CE-5, providing new insight into lunar science. In these missions, remote sensing is the most critical detection method, such as optical image, multiple-wavelength spectroscopy, passive and active microwave, gamma-ray, X-ray, neutron, etc. In the upcoming decades, lunar exploration will usher in new development. Represented by the Artemis program proposed by NASA of the United States, plans for crewed flights followed by moonbases were declared by the US, Russia, ESA, China, Japan, and India.

For this Special issue, “Future of Lunar Exploration”, we are inviting contributions on new findings in the field of lunar science, covering methods and applications, as well as overview papers. The topics include but are not limited to analysis of data from current or past explore missions, instrument concepts for planned or future missions, modeling of the remote sensing observations of the lunar surface or interior, laboratory analysis of returned samples, and Earth-based observation of the Moon.

Dr. Jianqing Feng
Prof. Dr. Jianzhong Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

lunar exploration
lunar geology
satellite remote sensing
data processing and interpretation
numerical modeling
sample analysis
earth-based observation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Slip Estimation Using Variation Data of Strain of the Chassis of Lunar Rovers Traveling on Loose Soil

Kojiro Iizuka

and

Kohei Inaba

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(17), 4270; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15174270 - 30 Aug 2023

Viewed by 385

Abstract

The surface of the Moon and planets have been covered with loose soil called regolith, and there is a risk that the rovers may stack, so it is necessary for them to recognize the traveling state such as its posture, slip behavior, and sinkage. There are several methods for recognizing the traveling state such as a system using cameras and Lidar, and they are used in real exploration missions like Mars Exploration Rovers of NASA/JPL. When a rover travels and travels across loose soil with steep slopes like a side wall of a crater on the lunar surface, the rover has side slipping. It means that its behavior makes the rover slip down to the valley direction. Even if this detection uses sensors like a camera and Lidar or other controlling systems like SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), it would be too difficult for the rover to avoid slipping down to valley direction, because it is not able to detect the traction or resistance given from ground by individual wheel of the rover, as the traction of individual wheel of the rover is not clear. This means that the movement of the rover appeared by integrating the traction of all wheels mounted on the rover. Even if the localization by sensors is carried out, the location would be the location after slipping down. This is because when traveling on unstable ground, the driving force of each individual wheel cannot be accurately predicted, and the sum of the driving force of all wheels is the motion of the rover, which is detected after the position changes. Therefore, if the rover obtains information on the traction of each wheel, its maneuver to change its posture would work sooner and it would be able to travel more efficiently than in a state without that information. Because the onboard computer of rovers can identify their location and state from the information of the traction of each wheel, they can decide the next work carefully and in detail. From these tasks, we focused on the intrinsic sensation of a biological function like a human body and aimed to develop a system that recognizes the traveling state (slip condition) from the shape deformation of the chassis. In this study, we experimentally verified the relationship between the change in strain, which is the amount of deformation acting on the chassis, and the traveling state while the wheel is traveling. From the experimental results, we confirmed that the strain in the chassis was displaced dynamically and that the strain changed oscillatory while the wheel was traveling. In addition, based on the function of muscle spindles as mechanoreceptors, we discussed two methods of analyzing strain change: nuclear chain fiber analysis and nuclear bag fiber analysis. These analyses mean that the raw data of the strain are updated to detect the characteristic strain elements of a chassis while the wheel is traveling through loose soil. Eventually, the slipping state could be estimated by updating the data of a lot of strain raw data, and it was confirmed that the traveling state could be detected. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Lunar Exploration)

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Open AccessArticle

A Measurement Method for Cislunar Spacecraft Based on Connected Element Interferometry and BeiDou-3 Interplanetary Link in Future Lunar Exploration

and

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(15), 3744; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153744 - 27 Jul 2023

Viewed by 534

Abstract

To meet the urgent need for high-precision tracking and reliable cataloging of non-cooperative targets in the Earth–Moon space, this paper proposes a GNSS Inter-Satellite Link and Connected Element Interferometry (CEI)-based measurement method for high-value cislunar space targets. Firstly, the general flow and basic scenario of the proposed method are given, followed by the mathematical model which, mainly includes four parts: (i) dynamical constraint equations for targets; (ii) GNSS-based interplanetary link for irradiation of targets; (iii) transmission loss equation of GNSS inter-satellite link signal in Earth–Moon space; (iv) CEI-based precision measurements of targets. On this basis, the full process link budget analysis is carried out, followed by the performance evaluation, which includes the reception performance of CEI receiving arrays and the measurement accuracy of targets. The feasibility of the proposed method is evaluated and verified in experiments, and it is illustrated that (i) for inter-satellite link visibility analysis, at least 20 satellites can simultaneously provide inter-satellite link signals to the Earth–Moon space targets, with a single GEO satellite up to

8.5

h continuously, while the chain access can be available at up to 73,000 km, with the angle ranging from

- 80^{\circ}

360^{\circ}

; (ii) the Max Duration of Chain Access for BD3-lunarprobe-CEI (from 24 March 2023 04:00:00.000 to 31 March 2023 10:00:00.000) is 50,998.804 s/day, with a Total Duration of 358,408.797 s in 7 days; (iii) for link budget and measurement accuracy analysis, even beyond the farthest Earth–Moon Lagrangian point, the

C / N_{0}

will be above

56.1

dBHZ, while even approaching the distances of

4.5 \times 1 0^{5} km

, the

σ_{D L L}

and

σ_{F L L}

will be below 5.345 m and

3.475 \times 10^{- 4}

m/s, respectively, and the final measurement error will remain at 62.5 m with the proposed method. The findings of this paper could play a key role in future increasingly serious space missions, such as Earth–Moon space situational awareness, and will have a broad application prospect, if put into actual testing and operations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Lunar Exploration)

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Open AccessArticle

Improvement of Lunar Surface Dating Accuracy Utilizing Crater Degradation Model: A Case Study of the Chang’e-5 Sampling Area

Feiyue Zhao

Wei Zuo

and

Chunlai Li

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(9), 2463; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15092463 - 08 May 2023

Viewed by 633

Abstract

Taking the Chang’e-5 (CE-5) sampling area as an example, this study carried out an investigation on improving the crater size-frequency distribution (CSFD) dating accuracy of lunar surface geologic units based on the crater degradation model. We constructed a three-parted crater degradation model, which consists of the diffusion equation describing crater degradation and equations describing the original crater profile for small craters (D < 1 km) and larger craters (D ≥ 1 km). A method that can improve the accuracy of CSFD dating was also proposed in this study, which utilizes the newly constructed degradation model to simulate the degradation process of the craters to help determine the crater degradation process and screen out the craters suitable for CSFD analysis. This method shows a good performance in regional dating. The age determined for the CE-5 sampling area is 2.0 ± 0.2 Ga, very close to the 2.03 ± 0.004 Ga of isotopic dating result of the returned sample. We found that the degradation state of the craters simulated by our constructed degradation model is highly consistent with the real existing state of the craters in terms of their topographic, geomorphological, and compositional (e.g., FeO) features. It fully demonstrates that the degradation model proposed in this study is effective and reliable for describing and distinguishing the degradation state of craters over time due to the cumulative effects of small craters. The proposed method can effectively distinguish between diffusively degraded (which conform to the degradation model) and non-diffusively degraded (which do not conform to the degradation model) craters and improve the CSFD accuracy through the selection of the craters. This not only provides an effective solution to the problem of obtaining a more “exact” frequency distribution of craters, which has long plagued the practical application of the CSFD method in dating the lunar surface but also advances our understanding of the evolutionary history of the geologic units of the study area. The results of this work are important for the in-depth study of the formation and evolution of the moon, especially for lunar chronology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Lunar Exploration)

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Open AccessArticle

New Lunar Crater Production Function Based on High-Resolution Images

and

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(9), 2421; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15092421 - 05 May 2023

Viewed by 892

Abstract

The lunar crater production function describes the general pattern of the size–frequency distribution of craters on the lunar surface, and it is the foundation of the surface dating method via crater counting. In addition, the lunar crater production function has been extended to other celestial bodies and used to analyze the meteorite flux of the inner solar system. The basic process of establishing the lunar crater production function is to map in an ideal way the primary craters in different geological units, and then to normalize all of the corresponding size–frequency distributions using a mathematical model. Currently, the most widely used lunar crater production functions have been established based on the images acquired in the last century. However, now they can be refined with newly obtained high-resolution images. In this research, we mapped all of the primary craters in 13 regions on the lunar surface with the images acquired using the narrow angle camera and wide angle camera onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and then we fitted the lunar crater production function with a polynomial. The resultant new lunar crater production function is largely comparable with the previous results, and the difference is mainly at the large diameter end. We analyzed the uncertainty of model fitting as well as the difference in the crater measurements and demonstrated the reliability of the new production function. It is expected to refine the lunar surface dating models, which can provide more accurate information on the impact rate in related studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Lunar Exploration)

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Open AccessCommunication

Hybrid Volcanic Episodes within the Orientale Basin, Moon

Shreekumari Mukeshbhai Patel

Harish

Deep Patel

Paras M. Solanki

and

Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(7), 1801; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071801 - 28 Mar 2023

Viewed by 788

Abstract

Basalts from Mare Orientale are representative of lunar flood volcanism, which sheds light on the lunar farside’s thermal and volcanic past. We use Chandrayaan’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper data to examine the spectral and chemical makeup of the volcanic units located in the Orientale basin; the analysis specifically focuses on three formations: Mare Orientale, Lacus Veris, and Lacus Autumni. The main assemblage in these basaltic units consists of calcic augite and ferroaugite. Pyroxenes in the Orientale volcanic units have an average chemical composition of En_35.53 Fs_34.11 Wo_30.35. The trend in the composition of pigeonites and augites suggests that the magma was fractionated as it crystallized. The pyroxene quadrilateral plot’s distinct chemical trends indicate that the Orientale Basin underwent a number of volcanic eruptions from heterogeneous magma sources during the Imbrium to Eratosthenian period. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future of Lunar Exploration)

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