A research mission will be sent to the crater of eternal darkness on the moon

Researchers from Fudan University published an article in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration on choosing a landing site in

"permanently shaded region".The paper reports that the Chang'e 7 mission will attempt a high-precision, fixed-point landing in a sunlit area near the Eternal Darkness Crater on the Moon. The option of landing on the edge of a crater located at the south pole of the satellite is being considered.

Crater of Eternal Darkness (Crater of Eternal Shadow) - areaon the surface of a celestial body in the Solar System, which is constantly in shadow and never illuminated by the Sun. Such zones are located in the polar regions of celestial bodies with a slight inclination of the rotation axis. 

Due to the low temperature inside the craters of eternal darkness (about -230 ℃), various volatile compounds are trapped in them - for example, water ice, methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia.

The Chang'e-7 mission plans to explore these reserves.It will consist of several spacecraft: an orbiter, a relay satellite, a lander, a rover and a "mini-flying detector". The main project candidate is a six-legged movable repeating lander called HexaMRL. This ship can repeatedly take off and descend to the surface of the planet, move on six legs and take samples of regolith.

In a published article, the authors of the studyare using synthetic aperture radar data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with optical imaging and high-resolution digital elevation modeling to try to find flat areas in Shackleton and Shoemaker craters.

The results of the study will help the polarizingSynthetic Aperture Radar (Pol-SAR), which will be installed on the Chang'e-7 orbiter, independently assess the topography and roughness of the lunar surface in order to select landing and sampling sites.

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