Abstract
This study presents the results of the numerical modeling of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) space experiment, which is scheduled for 2009 by NASA. It is demonstrated that a spacecraft with a mass of 2 tons impacting the Moon at a velocity of 2.5 km/s creates an ejecta plume with a size of more than 100 km and a mass exceeding 100 tons. The detailed characteristics of the ejecta are given and their relation to the impactor structure is investigated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold, J.R., Ice in the Lunar Polar Regions, J. Geophys. Res., Ser. B, 1979, vol. 84, no. 10, pp. 5659–5667.
Dienes, J.K. and Walsh, J.M., Theory of Impact: Some General Principles and the Method of Eulerian Codes, in High-Velocity Impact Phenomena, Kinslow, R., Ed., New York: Academic, 1970, pp. 46–104.
Feldman, W.C., Maurice, S., Binder, A.B., et al., Fluxes of Fast and Epithermal Neutrons from Lunar Prospector: Evidence for Water Ice at the Lunar Poles, Science, 1998, vol. 281, pp. 1496–1500.
Lundborg, N., Strength of Rock-Like Materials, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 1968, vol. 5, pp. 427–454.
McGlaun, J.M., Thompson, S.L., and Elrick, M.G., CTH: A Three-Dimensional Shock Wave Physics Code, Int. J. Impact Eng., 1990, vol. 10, pp. 351–360.
Melosh, H.J., Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989. Translated under the title Obrazovanie udarnykh kraterov: geologicheskii protsess, Moscow: Mir, 1994.
Melosh, H.J. and Ivanov, B.A., Impact Crater Collapse, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci, 1999, vol. 27, pp. 385–425.
O’Keefe, J.D. and Ahrens, T.J., Complex Crater: Relationship of Stratigraphy and Rings To Impact Conditions, J. Geophys. Res., Ser. E, 1999, vol. 104, no. 11, pp. 27091–27104.
Pierazzo, E., Artemieva, N.A., and Ivanov, B.A., Starting Conditions for Hydrothermal Systems Underneath Martian Craters: Hydrocode Modeling, GSA Spec. Pap., 2004, vol. 384, pp. 443–457.
Samarskii, A.A. and Popov, Yu.G., Raznostnye metody resheniya zadach gazovoi dinamiki (Difference Methods for the Solution of Problems of Gas Dynamics), Moscow: Nauka, 1980.
Shuvalov, V.V., Multi-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Code SOVA for Interfacial Flows: Application To Thermal Layer Effect, Shock Waves, 1999, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 381–390.
Shuvalov, V., Displacement of Target Material during Impact Cratering, Impact Markers in the Stratigraphic Record, Koeberl, C. and Martinez-Ruiz, F.C., Eds., ESF Impact, Berlin: Springer, 2003, pp. 121–135.
Thompson, S.L. and Lauson, H.S., Improvements in the Chart D Radiation-Hydrodynamic CODE III: Revised Analytic Equations of State, Report of Sandia Nat. Lab., Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1972, no. SC-RR-71 0714.
Tillotson, J.H., Metallic Equations of State for Hypervelocity Impact, General Atomic Report, 1962, GA-3216.
Van Leer, B., Towards the Ultimate Conservative Difference Scheme IV. A New Approach to Numerical Convection, J. Comput. Phys., 1977, vol. 23, pp. 276–299.
Wünnemann, K., Collins, G.S., and Melosh, H.J., A Strain-Based Porosity Model for Use in Hydrocode Simulations of Impacts and Implications for Transient Crater Growth in Porous Targets, Icarus, 2006, vol. 180, pp. 514–527.
Zharkov, V.N., Vnutrennee stroenie Zemli i planet (Internal Structure of the Earth and Planets), Moscow: Nauka, 1983.
Zamyshlyaev, B.V. and Evterev, L.S., Modeli dinamicheskogo deformirovaniya i razrusheniya gruntovykh sred (Models of Dynamic Deformation and Destruction of Grounds), Moscow: Nauka, 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Original Russian Text © V.V. Shuvalov, I.A. Trubetskaya, 2008, published in Astronomicheskii Vestnik, 2008, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 3–9.