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Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station

The Moon provides a long-term, stable, and unique location for Earth observation. Several space agencies, such as NASA, ESA, and CNSA, have conducted lunar explorations. To build a Moon-based observation station, site selection is the first step. The time coverage of Earth observation, e.g., the who...

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Autores principales: Chen, Guoqiang, Guo, Huadong, Ding, Yixing, Shang, Haolu, Lv, Mingyang, Zhang, Ke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587812/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770503
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217198
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author Chen, Guoqiang
Guo, Huadong
Ding, Yixing
Shang, Haolu
Lv, Mingyang
Zhang, Ke
author_facet Chen, Guoqiang
Guo, Huadong
Ding, Yixing
Shang, Haolu
Lv, Mingyang
Zhang, Ke
author_sort Chen, Guoqiang
collection PubMed
description The Moon provides a long-term, stable, and unique location for Earth observation. Several space agencies, such as NASA, ESA, and CNSA, have conducted lunar explorations. To build a Moon-based observation station, site selection is the first step. The time coverage of Earth observation, e.g., the whole Earth disc observation or Earth-related plasmasphere and magnetosphere, the duration of sunlight coverage, and topography (i.e., slope) are the three major factors influencing site selection, especially in the Moon’s south pole region. In this study, we used the Chang’E digital elevation model (DEM) together with Earth, Moon, and Sun positions deduced from JPL ephemeris for site selection. Two craters, Faustini and Shoemaker, were chosen for the fuzzy evaluation of these three factors based on a multiple-input single-output (MISO) model during a 19-year period. The results show that the edge regions of craters and small hills, potholes, or uplifts inside craters are unsuitable for a Moon-based observation station. The south pole area, including these two craters, has relatively low time coverage of sunlight and some unevenly distributed, permanent shadow areas. This indicates a low thermal environment for radiation protection, whereas the relatively flat topography and the ability to cover a field of view several times the Earth’s radius enable observations of the plasmasphere and magnetosphere.
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spelling pubmed-85878122021-11-13 Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station Chen, Guoqiang Guo, Huadong Ding, Yixing Shang, Haolu Lv, Mingyang Zhang, Ke Sensors (Basel) Article The Moon provides a long-term, stable, and unique location for Earth observation. Several space agencies, such as NASA, ESA, and CNSA, have conducted lunar explorations. To build a Moon-based observation station, site selection is the first step. The time coverage of Earth observation, e.g., the whole Earth disc observation or Earth-related plasmasphere and magnetosphere, the duration of sunlight coverage, and topography (i.e., slope) are the three major factors influencing site selection, especially in the Moon’s south pole region. In this study, we used the Chang’E digital elevation model (DEM) together with Earth, Moon, and Sun positions deduced from JPL ephemeris for site selection. Two craters, Faustini and Shoemaker, were chosen for the fuzzy evaluation of these three factors based on a multiple-input single-output (MISO) model during a 19-year period. The results show that the edge regions of craters and small hills, potholes, or uplifts inside craters are unsuitable for a Moon-based observation station. The south pole area, including these two craters, has relatively low time coverage of sunlight and some unevenly distributed, permanent shadow areas. This indicates a low thermal environment for radiation protection, whereas the relatively flat topography and the ability to cover a field of view several times the Earth’s radius enable observations of the plasmasphere and magnetosphere. MDPI 2021-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8587812/ /pubmed/34770503 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217198 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chen, Guoqiang
Guo, Huadong
Ding, Yixing
Shang, Haolu
Lv, Mingyang
Zhang, Ke
Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title_full Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title_fullStr Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title_short Influence of Topography on the Site Selection of a Moon-Based Earth Observation Station
title_sort influence of topography on the site selection of a moon-based earth observation station
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8587812/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34770503
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21217198
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