Whitepaper #485 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: Mercury and/or the Moon; technology development; theory, computation, and modeling
by Elisha Jhoti, David Paige, Tyler Horvath, and Tyler Powell
Published onMar 18, 2021
An Ultra-low Altitude Lunar Orbiter
An ultra-low altitude lunar orbiter presents enhanced science returns with high-resolution data at the meter/cm scale. The orbiter would mitigate perturbations due to lunar mascons and navigate topography to maintain a near circular polar low altitude orbit. Potential instrumentation includes imaging, fields and particles, and thermal mappers.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
