Phil Stooke

@PhilStooke
731 Followers
8 Following
2K Posts
Professor Emeritus, University of Western Ontario. Space exploration and planetary cartography, historical and present. A longtime poster on
unmannedspaceflight.com (RIP - but now archived at https://umsfarchive.com/index.php/), now posting content on www.nasaspaceflight.com and https://discord.com/channels/1290524907624464394 as well as here. The Solar System ain't gonna map itself. This is 100% (or more) AI-free.
homepagehttps://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/
Collections of my postshttps://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke/114536587365159221
Moon Chronicle: a new history of lunar explorationhttps://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/moon-chronicle.htm
Show threadPhil Stooke16h ago
Back at the Connecting Ridge (AKA Shackleton-de Gerlache Ridge or Spudis Ridge - it doesn't yet have an official name). These maps show names for small craters on the ridge and around Shackleton, as they were shown on Quickmap in 2024. Careful comparison with earlier maps will show that a few names have changed. They are all related to the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. These are from the LRO camera team and might become official at some point. Tomorrow - some whimsical names.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke1d ago
A second study reported by Brett Denevi (Johns Hopkins) looks at how volatiles like water or carbon dioxide from rocket exhaust might contaminate the surface. This is based on the Starship lander. A north-south streak on the map shows the area of volatile deposition from the main landing rocket. At the landing site four high-mounted thrusters take over for the final touchdown to reduce surface erosion. This landing site is the same as on the previous map.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke1d ago
Here is another view of Mons Malapert illustrating 2 different studies. The main one with multiple EVA paths illustrates a grid sampling strategy. In addition to the main science targets, lots of small samples are collected on a rough grid pattern (aiming for a fairly regular distribution of samples, not a perfect grid pattern). It's supposed to reduce bias in sampling. The landing site is not the same as the previous one. A second study looks at rocket exhaust contamination...
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke2d ago
Kring's Malapert mission assumed a SpaceX Starship lander and mapped areas visible from its very high crew cabin. The long EVA 3 is almost entirely visible from the lander. This landing site is a few kilometres west of the Malapert site in the previous map.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke2d ago

Here is another study by David Kring and others - he works a lot with groups of interns at LPI and presents results at LPSC and elsewhere. This was presented at LPSC in 2024 and publisher here (open access) in 2025:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JE008905

This is on top of Mons Malapert, a mountain about 8 km above the floor of Haworth crater immediately to it south. It would be quite a place to stand. Several walking EVAs are illustrated.
#moon

Show threadPhil Stooke3d ago
Kring's study was an effort to assess the ability of astronauts to function at each site. They found that workloads would not exceed the Apollo 14 EVA 2 - the climb up Cone Ridge and back - and so should be well within what astronauts would be capable of in early missions without a rover.
Show threadPhil Stooke3d ago
In 2023 David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute and colleagues used LRO LOLA topography to identify an example of a landing site within each of 12 Artemis landing regions. The landing sites were required to have slopes of no more than 8° in a circle of 100 m radius, and each region may contain other suitable sites. This set of small maps identifies the 12 sites. This and other surveys are finding the actual places astronauts may land in the coming years.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke4d ago
Eight months later LTV was driven remotely to the rim of de Gerlache to await another crew. That 47.5 km drive took 602.5 hours (25 Earth days) and two months later the next Artemis lander (depicted as a SpaceX starship) would bring another crew to the surface at the de Gerlache Rim 1 landing site, where they could also drive the LTV. Simulations are very dependent on illumination and this one was based on lighting for December 2028 (Connecting Ridge) and September 2029 (de Gerlache).
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke4d ago
On day 3 samples were collected near the lander and the LTV took the crew to Bear Paw and back to the landing site. Day 4 was an EVA around the landing site. Day 5 included a crew traverse to a potential habitat site further from Shackleton along the ridge. On day 6 the crew prepared for departure on day 7. The LTV was driven remotely to the potential habitat site. "Bear Paw" is from another set of names I will mention later.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke4d ago

Back to the south pole now, because most studies still put us there. An Artemis mission scenario was shown in a 2023 video

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230001847

also available at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k08Yql4Z5I

A generic lander leaves the orbiting Gateway and lands on the Connecting Ridge on day 1 of the mission. A pre-landed Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) was driven remotely from a standby site to the landing site. Day 2 had the crew inside the lander preparing for surface operations.
#moon