Phil Stooke

@PhilStooke
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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 Stooke17h ago
I linked to a mission simulation video earlier. The people who made it have published numerous papers on their landscape visualization methods, which start with LRO images and topography. For realism in the foreground of their views they add fictitious small craters and rocks (statistically matching real surface images). They have their own set of names, some of them quite whimsical. This map shows them and some routes from their studies.
#moon
Show threadPhil Stooke1d 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 Stooke2d 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 Stooke3d 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 Stooke4d 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 Stooke5d 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

Show threadPhil Stooke6d ago

Later in 2023 Schmitt suggested new sites at a Candidate Artemis III Landing Sites Workshop. At top left 3 boxes represent the other 3 maps. The sites are relatively smooth and lie between 62 and 75 south. The sites in Schrödinger are probably the most geologically interesting and are a bit further south, increasing the chance for traces of volatiles.

I have not seen anything more from Schmitt since then, but the faintest whispers of a rumour are beginning to suggest he may get his wish.
#moon

Show threadPhil StookeApr 3
This is Schmitt's first suggestion from LPSC in 2023, a crater on the rim of Clavius at about 60 south. He chose it because there might be a small area of permanent shadow (PSR on the map) under the northern wall of Clavius L. I think there may be too much reflected light there to allow volatiles, but it's an interesting thought. I am troubled by the rough terrain - not an ideal site in my view. His next ideas were better...
#moon
Show threadPhil StookeApr 3
Here's a happy fellow. This is Jack Schmitt in his Lunar Module, on the Moon, so he has good reason to be happy. But he is not so happy about the Artemis sites. Jack is still very active, presenting at conferences, writing papers, trying to understand his landing site. In 2020, in a Lunar Surface Science Workshop, he said the first new landing needed an easier target - a non-polar target. Then he set about suggesting potential candidates.
#moon
Show threadPhil StookeApr 2
In 2024 the set of 13 early Artemis landing regions was reduced from 13 to 9 for Artemis 3 (then expected to be the first landing). This is not really correct - the 13 regions were reduced to 6 and 3 new ones were added. This map shows them. You can see that the older regions closer to the pole are almost all dropped (don't worry - this was for the first landing, later landings still get the full set). Two of the new ones are at about 84 south. Why?
#moon