GGrantIndex
← Search

THIS PROPOSAL WILL MODEL HOW THE IMPACT-DRIVEN REDISTRIBUTION OF PRISTINE CRUSTAL AND UPPER MANTLE MATERIAL IS REFLECTED IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE LUNAR SURFACE. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THREE FOCUSED TASKS. IN TASK 1 WE WILL DEVELOP OUR INITIAL CONDITIONS AND IMPACT MODEL. WE WILL DEVELOP SIX MODELS FOR THE ORIGIN (SYMMETRY OF LUNAR MAGMA OCEAN (LMO) CRYSTALLIZATION) AND EVOLUTION (DEGREE OF OVERTURN) OF THE LUNAR CRUST AND MANTLE FROM PREVIOUSLY PROPOSED LMO HYPOTHESES. WE WILL DEVELOP A UNIQUE STRUCTURE OF CUMULATE STRATIGRAPHY AND COMPOSITION FOR EACH MODEL THAT SATISFIES A MASS BALANCE OF THE BULK LUNAR COMPOSITION. WE WILL ALSO ADD MULTI-COMPONENT TRACKING TO THE MATERIAL TRACKING CODE THAT SCIENCE-PI HUANG IMPLEMENTED IN THE IMPACT BOMBARDMENT CODE CRATERED TERRAIN EVOLUTION MODEL (CTEM) AS PART OF HER PH.D. IN TASK 2 WE WILL CONSTRAIN THE INITIAL COMPOSITIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE MOON BY MODELING THE MIXING OF MATERIALS BETWEEN FELDSPATHIC HIGHLANDS TERRANE SOUTH POLE-AITKEN BASIN TERRANE AND PROCELLARUM KREEP TERRANE AND COMPARING OUR RESULTS TO LP-GRS TH FEO AL2O3 AND TIO2 ABUNDANCE MAPS&GRAIL CRUSTAL THICKNESS MAPS. IN TASK 3 WE WILL STUDY THE GENESIS AND TIMING OF PKT BY INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF PUTATIVE IMPACT GENESIS ON THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TH FROM PKT INTO THE HIGHLANDS.

$369,428FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

View source on USAspending →