Unexplored Areas of the Moon: Nonmare Domes A White Paper submitted to the Planetary Science Decadal Survey 2013-2022 Primary Author Sarah E. Braden School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University
[email protected] (480) 727-8899 Co-Authors Samuel J. Lawrence, Arizona State University Mark S. Robinson, Arizona State University Bradley L. Jolliff, Washington University Julie D. Stopar, Arizona State University Lillian R. Ostrach, Arizona State University Lisa R. Gaddis, U.S. Geological Survey Justin J. Hagerty, U.S. Geological Survey Steven B. Simon, The University of Chicago B. Ray Hawke, University of Hawaii Endorsers Carlton C. Allen, NASA Johnson Space Center David T. Blewett, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Richard C. Elphic, NASA Ames Research Center Bernard H. Foing, European Space Agency and ILEWG Vera A. Fernandes, Berkeley Geochronology Center Timothy D. Glotch, Stony Brook University Jim Head III, Brown University David J. Lawrence, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Thomas Magna, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster David S. Mckay, ARES Office, NASA Johnson Space Center Clive R. Neal, University of Notre Dame Lawrence A. Taylor, University of Tennessee David T. Vaniman, Los Alamos National Laboratory Lionel Wilson, Lancaster University I. Introduction The Moon is a relatively close and invaluable source of information about planetary evolution and the history of the inner solar system. Forty years ago, returned samples from the Apollo missions enabled a series of discoveries that revolutionized our knowledge of the Earth-Moon system [Spudis, 1999]. While the Apollo missions sampled a range of volcanic materials, including glasses from fire fountains, mare basalts, and crustal rocks, these samples represent only a small portion of the lunar crust.