New Lunar Map to Help Guide Future Exploration Missions

A new map including rover paths of the Schrödinger basin, a geologically important area of the moon, could guide future exploration missions.The map was created by a team of interns at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, including Ellen Czaplinski, a U of A graduate student researcher at the Arkansas Center for Planetary Sciences and first author of a paper published in The Planetary Science Journal.

View of the southern, midlatitude far side of the moon showing the SPA basin outlined in white and the Schrödinger basin outlined in yellow (modified from LPI Lunar South Pole Atlas).

Credit: University of Arkansas

The researchers identified significant geologic features of the Schrödinger basin, located near the lunar south pole. Schrödinger is the second-youngest impact basin on the moon and includes diverse crustal features and rock types that are important to understanding the moon’s geological history.

“When the Schrödinger basin was formed, some of these lithologies (the general physical characteristics of the rocks) may have been uplifted from very deep below the lunar surface,” Czaplinski said. “Therefore, investigating these rocks up close is extremely important for answering high-priority science goals.”