Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop 2017 (LPI Contrib. No. 1989) 8066.pdf FUTURE SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION OF THE MOON: SAMPLE RETURN FROM THE LOWELL CRATER, ORIENTALE BASIN N. Srivastava, Planetary Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, India, email:
[email protected] Lunar Science & Exploration - Current State: (and also other planetary bodies) such as Giant Impact The Moon witnessed a string of remote sensing mis- hypothesis [16], Global Magma Ocean hypothesis [17], sions during the past decade due to its immense scien- Impact Cratering - Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) tific and strategic importance, revealed mostly from [18], and space weathering [19] are outcome of mostly laboratory analysis of Apollo and Luna samples and laboratory studies of the lunar samples. Since, these remote sensing orbiters such as Clementine (NASA; insights are based on samples that were collected with- 1994) & Lunar Prospector (NASA; 1998). The mis- in a limited lunar terrain, our comprehensive under- sions include SMART-1 (ESA; 2003), Kaguya stand about these is somewhat biased [15]. The same is /SELENE (JAXA; 2007), Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO; also evident from the above mentioned surprising out- 2008), Chang´e 1 & 2 (CNSA; 2007 & 2010), Lunar comes from the exhaustive reconnaissance phase of Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO, NASA; 2009 – still lunar exploration during the past decade and studies of continuing), and Gravity Recovery and Interior Labor- lunar meteorites derived from unknown provenances. atory (GRAIL, NASA; 2011). In addition to these mis- Several earlier questions still remain unanswered sions, Moon Impact Probe (MIP) onboard Chan- and many new questions have erupted regarding origin drayaan-1 and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing and evolution of the Moon, its current thermal state, Satellite (LCROSS) associated with LRO mission crash nature of its crust and interior, impact cratering pro- landed on the Moon in the year 2008 & 2009 respec- cess, relationship between impact cratering and volcan- tively.