Polyaxial figures of the Moon from the lunar reconnaissance orbiter laser altimetry and multi-mission synthesis of the lunar shape

Abstract

Last decade witnessed a plethora of missions to the Moon by China (Chang'E-1 and Chang-E-2), Japan (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer, SELENE), India (Chandrayaan-1) and USA (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), all carried out laser altimetry measurements. This study is a follow up to a series of earlier investigations that produced a number of new models to represent the gross geometric shape of the Moon using Unified Lunar Control 2005, Chang'E-1, and SELENE laser altimetry data using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter laser altimetry measurements. The symmetric and asymmetric polyaxial geometric models derived from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter laser altimetry data, namely, three, four and six-axial lunar figure parameters, are compared and contrasted with the corresponding model parameters estimated from the Chang'E-1 and SELENE laser altimetry. All solutions produced geometric shape, orientation parameters, and the parameters of the geometric center of lunar figure with respect to the center of mass of the Moon showing remarkable agreement with each other within 100 m. A combined solution by the fusion of uniformly sampled laser altimetry data from all three missions produced the best estimates for the lunar shape, orientation, and lunar center of figure parameters, and their realistic error estimates.