Abstract
Micro cold traps stand out as promising targets for future investigation missions to the lunar polar regions, due to their greater accessibility compared to macro cold traps. However, this advantage naturally comes at the cost of their size, which limits the amount of ice they can potentially harbor. Here, we investigate the permanently shadowed volume (PSV) of micro cold traps — an upper limit for their potential ice capacity. We find that, as expected, the PSV depth increases with latitude and surface roughness, but is on average much shallower (∼0.5−1%) compared to the topographic baseline. By comparing the expected destruction and accumulation rates of ice to the potential maximum capacity of micro cold traps, we predict their infill as a function of lateral size, and the lifetime of the ice they harbor. Our results could be used by future investigation missions to the lunar polar regions to constrain the delivery rate and delivery mechanism of ice to the Moon.
Published Version
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