Sunlit pathways between south pole sites of interest for lunar exploration

Abstract

The lunar poles are of high interest to human and robotic exploration for their exploration potential to host volatiles useful for scientific and commercial purposes in cold permanently shadowed regions and for the rare highly-illuminated regions that can support exploration efforts. We investigate if the complex and dynamic lighting is amenable to long traverses between these sparsely-distributed, distant sites of interest. We use accurate high-resolution topographic maps of the south polar region to compute the traverse paths, and we simulate the time-varying illumination conditions along these over long time periods to determine whether such trips are possible while remaining nearly entirely sunlit. We find that long-distance sunlit pathways are possible but long in duration. These can be further optimized, and potentially significantly shortened given specific survival capabilities, such as driving through short periods of shadows.