The mission target is to ...

• Discover Water Ice

• Possible Sites for permanent Moon Base Camp

  
  

Spacewalk

The astronauts are likely to explore Shackleton crater and will remain on the moon for roughly seven days. As an area where water ice is present, they will explore the suitability of the lunar south pole for a permanent moon base. (https://www.space.com/artemis-program.html)

Possible Landing sites:

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-identifies-candidate-regions-for-landing-next-americans-on-moon/

Video - Artemis Mission

https://youtu.be/bmC-FwibsZg

Investigate

• Sunlight

• Shadow in the creator - frozen - Water ice

• The structure of the Rover (solar panels?) and possibly a moon base (shelter/housing with solar panels?) - source of energy?

• the Moon and its tilt.

Q: Why does the South Pole get the most amount of Sunlight?

Video: https://youtu.be/aD1OQ9UBwuU?si=bh0d6skNExjuZLJv

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-identifies-candidate-regions-for-landing-next-americans-on-moon/

The analysis team weighed other landing criteria with specific Artemis III science objectives, including the goal to land close enough to a permanently shadowed region to allow crew to conduct a moonwalk, while limiting disturbance when landing. This will allow crew to collect samples and conduct scientific analysis in an uncompromised area, yielding important information about the depth, distribution, and composition of water ice that was confirmed at the Moon’s South Pole.

The team identified regions that can fulfill the moonwalk objective by ensuring proximity to permanently shadowed regions, and also factored in other lighting conditions. All 13 regions contain sites that provide continuous access to sunlight throughout a 6.5-day period – the planned duration of the Artemis III surface mission. Access to sunlight is critical for a long-term stay at the Moon because it provides a power source and minimizes temperature variations.

“Lunar water ice is valuable from a scientific perspective and also as a resource, because from it we can extract oxygen and hydrogen for life support systems and fuel.”

Knowledge Check Questions:

* This visual is the view from the North Pole. (Looking down from North)

Pre-Test (Prior knowledge)

• Questions (True or false)

By observing the movement of the Earth round the Sun,

Questions -

• Earth is revolving around the sun in counterclockwise

• Earth is rotating on its axis in counterclockwise.

• counterclockwise

The moon rotates on its axis at the same speed as the earth is rotating on its axis. (Synchronous Rotation)

This is why we only see one side of the moon from Earth.

Tidal Locking - https://science.nasa.gov/moon/tidal-locking/

We also see the moon in different shapes from earth. Why?

Depending on where the moon is, when it is revolving around the Earth, the sunlight shine on the surface of the moon in a different angle. The shapes have a pattern, and it is called Moon phases. The Moon Phases goes back the start in about 28 days, that's how long it takes the Moon to revolve around the Earth.

Let's learn about the Moon Phases.

The spin axis of the Moon is tilted by only 1.54° (compared to Earth's 23.5°), leaving some areas near the poles in permanent shadow while other nearby regions remain sunlit for the majority of the year. One of the primary objectives of LROC is to unambiguously identify these regions.  

https://www.lroc.asu.edu/images/271?_gl=1*9375za*_ga*Mjc3MjYwMTYxLjE3MjEwODYyNTM.*_ga_SBFXQ3JFQY*MTcyMTE3MTY4NC4yLjEuMTcyMTE3MTgxMy4zNC4wLjA.

Topographic Map of South Pole

https://science.nasa.gov/resource/high-resolution-topographic-map-of-the-moon/

https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/53/lunar-heritage-sites/

Understand Coordinates.

• How to read a coordinate.

• #3 is (0,0)

South Pole Coordinate -

https://www.lroc.asu.edu/images/237?_gl=1*1gi7nsn*_ga*Mjc3MjYwMTYxLjE3MjEwODYyNTM.*_ga_SBFXQ3JFQY*MTcyMTI1NDE0MS40LjEuMTcyMTI1NDM0My4xNS4wLjA.

https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/layers?prjExtent=-2160165.1323732%2C-730292.3354461%2C1627432.0982868%2C1071783.8398252&showGraticule=true&showTerrain=true&queryOpts=N4XyA&isCesiumEntityDetailsEnabled=true&showCompass=true&trailType=1&wideTrail=true&layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjYIHYFcA2vIBvAXwF1Siyk44oNEQBmFAJgQXp30vJ6XFoxECJigAcATnSIuBEhWAsxoAOzSseOVWCMajdZFk8K80kA&proj=27

Video of possible sites: https://youtu.be/ocDzndmmE8I

Identify the possible sites using latitude and longitude.