Improved Views of the Moon in the Early Twenty First Century: A Review

Abstract

The twenty first century was an exciting epoch in planetary exploration, when a large number of lunar scientific achievements were accomplished. New missions in the first decade of the twenty first century have herald a new and exciting phase in lunar exploration, including LRO, LCROSS, the dual GRAIL orbiters, Kaguya, Chandrayaan 1, and the Chang'e series. Here we review the most significant advances in our understanding of lunar geoscience, including the assessment of water ice at lunar poles, the detection of new elements and minerals relating to exposed interior materials, the calculation of highly accurate gravity models, and the detection of subsurface interfaces probably related to basaltic strata formed in distinct episodes. In this paper we emphasize the importance of integrated approaches to the analysis of these large yield of new lunar data, through comparison and integration. By integrating a range of diverse technologies and approaches, this paper reviews new understanding of lunar processes, including the confirmation of the presence of water ice at the poles, the interactions between solar wind and surface oxides, and an improved model of lunar interior structures.