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There is a ramp in the east of the pit to enable access to the interior of the pit. Also, there is a ramp enabling access to the inside of the pit (Fig. The pit is oval shaped and the length of the major axis is about 260 m while the length of the minor axis is about 100 m. The location of Lacus Mortis in lunar scale (A) the location of pit in the Lacus Mortis (B) detailed look of pit location (C) Rimae Burg locates in the left of the pit in a diagonal line. Those are believed to be evidences of previous magma activity in the interior of the Moon (Head & Wilson 1993) and lava caves may be in existence there (Greeley 1971b).įig. There are pyroclastic deposits which seem to be an evidence of volcanic activity around the grabens(Schultz 1972 Head 1976). The rilles are in the form of straight line and seems to be a kind of graben. The pit is located about 1 km away from Rimae Burg. Lacus Mortis is in a lunar mare region and composed of basalt and has several rilles. The region of interest, the Lacus Mortis pit, is located at 44.96°N, 25.61☎ of Lacus Mortis (Fig. In this study, a 3D model of the pit in Lacus Mortis was built based on the topographical information obtained from the optical image data of this pit. Thus, it is arguable whether there is no inner space. Although there was a report insisting no evidence of cave entrance structure inside this pit (Wagner & Robinson 2014), all the image data of this pit are shadowed to some portion, the complete shape of pit is not possible to identify. Thus, it is believed that the rover could approach the inside of the pit. In this pit, there is a ramp down to the bottom of the crater. For both teams, the target landing site is a pit of Lacus Mortis. and HAKUTO Team each plan to explore a pit using a rover (Huber et al. Among those competitors, Astrobotic Technology Inc. The Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) project is a public competition that is planning to explore the Moon using a rover. (2014) showed that those pits could be entrances of caves through comparing those pits to the actual cave entrance of the Earth. The pits are found in the regions of the lunar sea and in places that experienced melting due to meteorite impact (Robinson et al. Moreover, about 200 pit-looking places, which are known as pit craters (abbreviated to pits), have been discovered and these can be candidates of caves. The shapes of these places are similar to the “sink hole” of earth and they have a slightly larger space inside the entrance. In previous studies, several places presumed to be the entrances of caves were discovered in the Moon and Mars (Haruyama et al. Since lava tubes are sealed, except for the entrance, the atmosphere is so thin that the conservation of temperature is excellent compared to the lunar surface where there is an extreme diurnal temperature difference. Also, lava tubes protect humans from physical impact such as those from meteorites. Since lava tubes are located below the lunar surface, they protect humans from high energy particles such as cosmic rays without any special shielding equipment, thus avoiding radiation damage (Angelis et al. The lava tubes of the Moon, which were formed by active lava in the past (Oberbeck 1971 Greeley 1971a, 1971b Cruikshank & Wood 1972 Head 1976), are appropriate for a human base on the Moon (Horz 1985 Coombs & Hawke 1992).
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Furthermore, the 3D printing of this model will enable more rigorous investigations and also could be used to publicize lunar exploration missions with ease. Since this model simulates the actual terrain, the rendering of the model agrees well with the image data. In this study, under the assumption of the existence of a cave in this pit, a 3D model was developed based on the optical image data. In this pit, there is a ramp from the entrance down to the inside of the pit, which enables a rover to approach the inner region of the pit. Ones of those groups competing, plan to land on a pit of Lacus Mortis and determine the existence of a cave inside this pit. The Google Lunar X Prize(GLXP) competition started recently to attempt lunar exploration missions.
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In order to ascertain the existence of caves on the Moon, it is best to visit the Moon in person. When humans explore the Moon, lunar caves will be an ideal base to provide a shelter from the hazards of radiation, meteorite impact, and extreme diurnal temperature differences.