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The Lawn Dart program, a proliferated mesh network of security commodities staged across the lunar surface, will promote a stable and sustainable space operating environment. Lawn Darts will deploy as probes from lunar orbit around the surface of the Moon to provide an Internet of Things and a power network for other operational assets such as rovers, people, and Moon bases. This capability and its execution raises questions about international law and geopolitical concerns related to territorial claims on the lunar surface and the planned organization of space activities by conflicting parties, but the program is compliant with the current framework of law and policy. The Lawn Dart program is essential for providing security for lunar assets, protecting mission data against adversaries, and laying the groundwork for NASA and European Space Agency exploration mission success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upcoming lunar Chang'e‐5 mission is scheduled to land near Mons Rümker, in northern Oceanus Procellarum, and return samples with masses up to 2 kg from depths up to ~2 m. A clear understanding of the regolith components in the candidate landing region is crucial to both the selection of sampling sites and the interpretation of the geological affinities for the returned samples. We quantitatively estimate the abundance of distantly sourced particles (DSPs) in the regolith at the landing region using an updated ballistic sedimentation model. Our results suggest that older units have a higher abundance of DSPs. In the targeted landing area, the total abundance of DSPs on the surface of the regolith varies from approximately 12% to 20%, and most of the DSPs on the surface are ejecta from the Pythagoras (~5%) and/or Aristarchus (~7%) craters. The youngest geological unit, which is located in the easternmost sector of the landing region, possesses the least DSPs in the regolith. Therefore, sampling the eastern unit has a higher potential of revealing both the petrological characteristics and age of the youngest mare basalt, which are fundamentally important to improve both the lunar crater chronology and the understanding of late‐stage evolution of the Moon. Our results also indicate that the anorthositic material within the shallow regolith is most likely ejected from the Pythagoras and Aristarchus craters, which could further improve the understanding of lunar geology and chronology. Plain Language Summary: Chang'e‐5 will be the first lunar sample return mission since the 1976 Luna 24 mission. It will return surface and core samples with masses up to 2 kg from depths up to ~2 m from northern Oceanus Procellarum. Most of the returned samples are expected to be lunar regolith. A better understanding of the regolith components in the candidate landing region is therefore helpful to both select sampling sites and interpret the samples that will be returned in the future. Here, we estimate the abundance of distantly sourced particles (DSPs) in the regolith within the proposed landing region. We find that older units are more enriched in DSPs, and the total surface abundance of DSPs varies from approximately 12% to 20%. Most DSPs on the surface are ejecta from the Pythagoras (~5%) and/or Aristarchus (~7%) craters. Our results support that the youngest mare unit is most suitable for sample return because of the low abundance of DSPs. Furthermore, core samples from this unit contain not only local basaltic materials and the several major sources of distant ejecta in the regolith but also both pristine highland anorthosites and pyroclastic deposits. Key Points: We estimate the abundance of distantly sourced particles in the regolith in the Chang'e‐5 candidate landing regionThe most abundant distantly sourced particles are ejecta from the craters Pythagoras and/or AristarchusIt is recommended to return samples from the youngest mare surface as there is a low abundance of distantly sourced particles [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the accuracy of autonomous soft landing on the lunar surface, a multi-model hierarchical scene matching method based on scale theory is proposed, using the images taken by the lunar orbiter and lander as the information sources. The FAST keypoint extracting technique is used in scale space of the lunar surface image, and then the exact scale, location and orientation of the keypoints are decided. A patch pair sampling pattern around the keypointis is introduced to build the binary descriptor with comparisons of patch pairs. Matching two descriptors is a simple computation of their Hamming distance. Experiments indicate that, with its robustness to scale changes, rotation, motion blur and various illumination conditions, the proposed method could well fulfill the real-time landing target recognition and tracking needs of automatic and precise soft landing on the lunar surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We use a photometric method called phase-ratio imaging to study the landing sites of the Soviet Luna-16, Luna-20, Luna-23 and Luna-24 probes using the survey data of the lunar surface, which was carried out with the Narrow-Angle Cameras (NACs) of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The phase-ratio images clearly show diffuse features associated with structure perturbations of the lunar regolith. We suggest that these features are caused by the impact of the gas jets from the rocket engines. The photometric anomalies around the landing sites suggest that the impacts smooth out the surface, destroying the primordial “fairy castle” structure that effectively produces the shadow-hiding effect. The same characteristic features have been found previously for the Apollo spacecraft landings, but over larger spatial scales. The only exception is the landing site of the Luna-24 probe, for which the feature of the possible impact of the gas jets is shifted to the northwest by approximately 150m. As the Luna-24 descent module worked in the regular mode and could not allow such a shift as the probe was descending vertically, a possible explanation is that the sites of Luna-23 (an unsuccessful sample return mission) and Luna-24 are misidentified. The distance between the sites is about 2km, which is within the inaccuracy of their coordinate determination. We suggest that because of faulty processing of the radar system for distance/speed control, the incorrectly operated engine and/or thrusters of Luna-23 produced the 150m lateral drift before final deactivation and hard descent. To better understand the geologic situation, we produce brightness and phase-ratio anaglyphs for the vicinity of the landings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The altitudinal/latitudinal profile of the lunar atmospheric composition on the sunlit side was unraveled for the first time by the Chandra’s Altitudinal Composition Explorer (CHACE) on the Moon Impact Probe, a standalone micro-satellite that impacted at the lunar south pole, as a part of the first Indian mission to Moon, Chandrayaan-1. Systematic measurements were carried out during the descent phase of the impactor with an altitude resolution of ∼250m and a latitudinal resolution of ∼0.1°. The overall pressure on the dayside and the neutral composition in the mass range 1–100amu have been measured by identifying 44 and 18amu as the dominant constituents. Significant amounts of heavier (>50amu) species also have been detected, the details of which are presented and discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Images of the lunar nearside obtained by telescopes of Maidanak Observatory (Uzbekistan) and Simeiz Observatory (Crimea, Ukraine) equipped with Canon CMOS cameras and Sony CCD LineScan camera were used to study photometric properties of the lunar nearside in several spectral bands. A wide range of lunar phase angles was covered, and the method of phase ratios to assess the steepness of the phase function at different phase angles is applied. We found several areas with photometric anomalies in the south-west portion of the lunar disk that we refer to as Oceanus Procellarum anomalies. The areas being unique on the lunar nearside do not obey the inverse correlation between albedo and phase-curve slope, demonstrating high phase-curve slopes at intermediate albedo. Low-Sun images acquired with Lunar Orbiter IV and Apollo-16 cameras do not reveal anomalous topography of the regions, at least for scales larger than several tens of meters. The areas also do not have any thermal inertia, radar (70 and 3.8cm), magnetic, or chemical/mineral peculiarities. On the other hand they exhibit a polarimetric signature that we interpret to be due to the presence of a porous regolith upper layer consisting of dust particles. The anomalies may be interpreted as regions of very fresh shallow regolith disturbances caused by impacts of meteoroid swarms consisting of rather small impactors. This origin is similar to one of the hypotheses for the origin of lunar swirls like the Reiner-γ formation. The photometric difference between the shallow and pervasive (Reiner-γ class) swirls is that the latter appear to have a significant amount of immature soils in the upper surface layers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article states that the moon probe D-CIXS onboard the European Space Agency's moon mission spacecraft SMART-1 has detected calcium on the surface of the moon. Researchers are using this finding to help answer the question of whether the moon formed from debris leftover after a collision to the Earth.

The article reports on the completion of a 3-year technology mission of the European Space Agency's diminutive Smart-1 probe with a lunar crash landing after successfully testing a propulsion system that fires out xenon ions. According to mission scientist Bernard Foing, Smart-1 has left a legacy of technology and scientific excellence. A camera and two spectrometers on board yielded information on the lunar surface including data on calcium, which could help scientists determine the age of the moon.