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Modeling the Stability of Volatile Deposits in Lunar Cold TrapsThere are several mechanisms acting at the cold traps that can alter the inventory of volatiles there. Primarily, the lunar surface is bombarded by meteoroids which impact, melt, process, and redistribute the regolith. Further, solar wind and magnetospheric ion fluxes are allowed limited access onto the regions in permanent shadow. Also, although cold traps are in the permanent shadow of the Sun, there is a small flux of radiation incident on the regions from interstellar sources. We investigate the effects of these space weathering processes on a deposit of volatiles in a lunar cold trap through simulations. We simulate the development of a column of material near the surface of the Moon resulting from space weathering. This simulation treats a column of material at a lunar cold trap and focuses on the hydrogen content of the column. We model space weathering processes on several time and spatial scales to simulate the constant rain of micrometeoroids as well as sporadic larger impactors occurring near the cold traps to determine the retention efficiency of the cold traps. We perform the Monte Carlo simulation over many columns of material to determine the expectation value for hydrogen content of the top few meters of soil for comparison with Lunar Prospector neutron data.
Document ID
20020074663
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Crider, D. H. (Catholic Univ. of America Washington, DC United States)
Vondrak, R. R. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Publication Information
Publication: The Moon Beyond 2002: Next Steps in Lunar Science and Exploration
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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