THE PEAKS OF ETERNAL LIGHT ON THE LUNAR SOUTH POLE

How they were found and what they look like

Michiel Kruijff, Delta-Utec, +31 (71) 523 0662, www.delta-utec.com

ABSTRACT
This paper summarizes the search for the Peaks of
Eternal Light (PELs) on the lunar South Pole. Already
predicted in the 19th century, the question of existence of
such peaks has revived after the Clementine and Lunar
Prospector missions and detailed ground based radar
imagery. These peaks can be considered primary targets
for future robotic or manned missions. For the first time
now, a detailed analysis has been made of the existence,
whereabouts and characteristics of these peaks. Also
tools have been developed to analyse the surface and
slopes of the polar areas at pixel-level based on orbital
imagery. Mission planners of the arising multitude of
(commercial) lunar or Mercury missions can use this
information and these tools to derive engineering
implications.

Why go to a Peak of Eternal Light? Fig. 1. Angles in the Earth-Moon system

Fig. 1 explains how on the lunar poles both Sun and
Earth appear only very low above the horizon, a Step Result
characteristic that is only shared in our solar system by 1 Geometry considerations for A priori limitations for PEL
a PEL location and size
Mercury. Due to local topography (craters and
2 High precision overlay of 2 Movie of Sunlight and shadows
depressions) this geometric condition creates regions of months of Clementine polar sweeping around the South Pole
permanent shadow. Mountain tops sticking out of the icy images Monthly Illumination Spectrum
shadows close to the pole will be lit by a Sun moving (MIS) for each pixel
around low and close to the local horizon, and can be lit 3 Identification of most lit pixel PEL lighting limits (wintertime)
4 Identification of slopes PEL location
for significantly longer than the typical 14 days valid for 5 Penumbra study PEL size/slope estimate
the remainder of the lunar surface. 6 DEM development (from Verification/prediction of
Such a Peak of Eternal Light is expected to have some shadowing and waxmodel), shadowing of large mountains,
properties that make it particularly attractive for a future shadowing reproduction summertime predictions
lunar landing: 7 Lunar (Topography) Visibility Automatic processing of lighting
Calculator conditions on DEM
• Continuous light. 8 Identification of future work Lunar North Pole, Mercury,
For operations and lunanaut-wellbeing, 14 days of night automated processing
time is a tough job. The PEL will offer relieve. Table 1. Steps towards identification of PELs
• Continuous power
• Benign temperature Geometry considerations for a PEL
260 K -?- and constant. From a study of the worst case geometrical conditions of
• Easy shielding for radiation a lunar attitude -winter’s midnight and midday- the
Bottom of e.g. a young 20 m diameter crater is sufficiently required PEL topographical height restrictions for single
shielded by the crater walls. meridians have been determined2 (the one towards the
• Inside geologically interesting Aitkin basin pole), disregarding the Sun's diameter of 0.27° with
• Close to suspected water ice in cold traps. respect to its maximum elevation of 1.5°. If the
First Lunar Prospector results3,11 estimated the regolith in topography around a certain site follows these
the dark craters contains 0.3-1% of water ice. Recent conditions, permanent sunlight is guaranteed. For shorter
considerations are a bit more sceptical ([12], papers this precursor missions, it may be sufficient if sunlight is
conference). permanently available for a month or single lunar day,
during summertime (Peak of Summertime Light, PSL).
Steps towards identification of the PEL
Table 1 shows the steps that were undertaken, that will As 1° = 30.32 km, and a maximum mountain height ~12
km, we’ll have to look for a true PEL within a radius of
be discussed shortly in the following, more explicitly in
[13]. 157 km from the pole. A true PEL, in the sense of a
really permanently lit surface cannot exist. A true PEL at
the pole would be a conical mountain, 600 meters higher
than the mean radius, with a ‘sharp’ top angle of less
than 177 degrees. The PEL would be infinitesimally
small. [Note that for a PSL a flat top would be more than
sufficient and there are no restrictions to its size].
Suppose however, that a lander is designed such that its
solar panels are elevated a certain height h above the
surface. Supposing that the top of a mountain follows a
circular curvature with radius r, Fig. 2, depicts the
achievable landing surface diameter for perpetual
lighting on the solar panels as a function of h and r.
20 m
500 m
The images were rotated and resized by S/W, based on
the central and corner co-ordinates and assuming a flat
approximation of the surface curvature. Mostly black
except for a few bright spots, for accurate positioning
they were then carefully positioned by hand as digital
transparencies on a ground based Arecibo radar picture6
[Fig. 3]. An accuracy analysis has been performed and
positioning 1σ errors are estimated to be less than the
pixel scale: 200 m for month 1 and 357 m (re-adjusted
scale) for month 2.
Apart from finding the PEL, the resulting movie proves
useful to understand the full extent of the elongated
Winter shadows. Locating shadow sources outside the
picture is possible from interpreting a sequence of
images.

DPEL
h

0m

No PEL exists
0m
0 km R-> 20
km
Fig. 2: Maximum polar PEL diameter D [m], function of
lander height h [m] and local surface radius r [km]

In this paper, a PEL is therefore defined as the area on

which a specific planetary lander can receive perpetual
sunlight. The PEL has to be looked for very close to the
lunar pole. Fig. 3: Arecibo image with Clementine overlay
Ironically, the PEL itself will appear rather dark on
images, due to both the many long shadows that local Identification of most lit pixels
surface roughness will cast over the area, as well as due After positioning of all individual images, for each
to the backscattering properties of the lunar regolith7,8. individual image, the pixel values that rise over a certain
The site will be very small (100s of meters), and it will threshold value were set to one, the rest to zero. For each
be difficult to reach by (semi)-autonomously guided pixel, a cumulative value is obtained that indicates on
spacecraft. It will therefore be useful to try to pinpoint how many images a corresponding site is lit. Three
the site and understand its direct surroundings. maxima are found, on the rim of the 20 km Shackleton
crater (one of which previously identified by Spudis5)
High precision overlay of Clementine polar images and on the westward ridge (Fig. 4, Table 3). The overall
In 1994, Clementine was in a nearly polar orbit, maximum for a single month, 91%, is found for Area 1.
approximately in the plane of polar axis and Sun1. Both area 1 and 2 rise considerably in illumination from
During the course of two months, the Moon turned month 1 to month 2. This can at least partially be
underneath the orbit twice and the polar area was imaged explained by the seasonal change: in 1994, lunar winter
with subsolar longitudes ranging from 0-360° with steps solstice was around February 13th, summer’s around
of ~5° [Table 2]. August 21th. The seasonal change over the period
Month 1 Month 2 between the two months is equivalent to a rise in solar
First Date 28-2 1994 28-3 1994 inclination of 32%, which can obviously have
image SSL 4 (used 331) 349
considerable influence on the shadowing. (On the other
Last Date 25-3 1994 24-4 1994
image SSL 18 21 hand, the situation during winter solstice is 10% worse).
# Images used 50 (Area 1) - 55 58
Largest data hole 13% of a month 9% of a month Identification of slopes, size of PEL
Height ~800 km ~1850 km As an example, in Fig. 5 a Monthly Illumination
Resolution ~200 m ~470 m (357 adj.) Spectrum (MIS) is plotted showing the pixel intensity vs.
Table 2: Clementine data used
 P i xe l va lue
subsolar longiutude (SSL), or, alternatively spoken, 150

reflection intensity as a function of time. 100

50

20
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
40 S ub S olar L ongi tud e

60 200

Pixel value
80
150
100 3
120
1 2 100

140
50
160
180 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Sub Solar Lo ngitude
50 100 150 200 250
200

Pixel value
Fig. 4: Cumulative image & identified areas month 1 150

2
100
Identified Illumin Max Best pixel Max Coordinat
site ation Pixel of area Pixel es
50
value value
Area1 ~72% 100 (137,87) 65 89.43S
0
Month1 140W 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Sub Solar Longitude
Area1 91% 130 (131,157) 60
Month2 Fig. 5: 'MIS': Pixels of Month 2, Area 2. (121,177), (122,177)
Area2 71% 110 (120,131) 100 89.69S (best pixel), (124,177). Clearly a East-West ridge is
Month1 163W displayed, (122,177) being the top with slopes to both sides.
Area2 ~90% 255 (122,177) 85
Month2
Area3 67% 245 (107,130) 100 89.79S 135
Month1 158W
Table 3: Main conclusions
140
The reflection intensity is depending on the angle
between Sun and orbiter (around 90 degrees), the slope
of the surface, reflection coefficient of the surface and 145
the surface roughness. Hapke8 has developed the
generally accepted model for lunar bi- directional
150
reflection. From this function it can be understood that
for the Clementine images, the reflection will be higher if
a slope is steeper. Therefore, while the Sun is turning
155
around the horizon, the SSL of the highest reflection in a 75 80 85 90 95
MIS will coincide with the slope direction. The MIS is
thus a powerful tool to characterise slopes, and, when Fig. 6: Zoom on Area 1, Month 1. The 8 black pixels are
illuminated most often (first month images): (137,87),
following the slopes up, to locate a mountain top (Fig. 6). (141,87), (143,87), (144,87), (145,86), (145,87), (146,86),
As the PEL is itself so small and dark, it can not be (147,86). Best pixel is (137,87). Indicated are slope directions
noticed directly and will not necessarily be the pixel with and relative angles from the MIS (see text).
highest cumulative score. However, from the MIS, its
whereabouts can be deduced indirectly. The PEL is A preliminary calculation yields a slope estimate of 9° at
expected in the pixel with the lowest maximum the penumbra center, 1.4 km from the PEL, i.e. a circular
reflection or slope: signs of a flat mountain top. As peak shape would have a radius of 13 km.
expected such pixels are found close to the pixels with From Fig. 2 it can be seen that a typical lander height is
highest cumulative score. In fig. 5, (122,177) is a pixel not sufficient for ‘eternal light’. In fact, the panels need
that shows two very small peaks at 180d apart, indicating to be at a height of 5 m for minimal landing site diameter
two opposite slopes, or actually: the top of a ridge! The DPEL. One can however choose to increase the landing
tops were identified precisely and located on a high-res site diameter by building a structure of say 20 m. [Due to
image (40 m), Fig. 8. the low lunar gravity this may not even be so hard to
[13] explains in more details other data that can be achieve]. If so, the acceptable landingsite is of 700 m
extracted from these plots. Of potential importance is the diameter.
method developed to calibrate the slope angles and
estimate the surface curvature from penumbra size, that
can be easily identified in the MIS.
DEM development and Lunar Visibiliy Calculator
In order to make all-year round predictions of the PEL
lighting from just the wintertime data of Clementine,
both a physical 3D model (scale 1:300,000) as well as a
DEM of the lunar South Pole were produced, in a rather
unique way - by matching shadows from a radar image
of the Arecibo observatory to those projected on a wax
model by a carefully oriented beam of a parallel spot
light7 [Fig 7]. The following tools were developed that
can process the DEM and can very well be applied to the
recently published DEMs from Margot10.
• Lunar Visibility Calculator (taking into account
topography, shadowing/communication, ground
stations, lander, rover, DRS etc)2,4
• Synthetic (digital) shadow recreation using Hapke's
reflection function and fractal surface overlay to
create all-year round/all angle realistic lunar surface
images for demonstration, verification and pattern
recognition purpose7,13.
It was seen that a shift of 30% in elevation results in
~20% of a month more illumination. Taking into account
the findings of [2], it is imaginable that a rise of the Sun
from –1.35 to 1.5 degrees has considerable influence and
the PEL may well be a true PSL.
Fig. 7: Lighting set-up of clay model during modeling
Identification of future work
Fig. 8: HighRes (40m) Clementine image of South Pole area with overlay of cumulative, LowRes (200 m) images from Month
1. Indicated are best pixels in Area 1 (left) and Area 2 (right below) and Area 3. The polar grid is the best estimate at 22-9-
1998, provided by Bussey & Robinson, accurate within a few km.
• Automated topographic analysis using the MIS-tool
• LVC statistical visibility analysis on recent DEM
from Cornell university radar interferometry10.
• PEL search on the lunar North Pole and the Poles of
Mercury
Acknowledgments & contact:
Work was funded by ESA/ESTEC, TUD and Delta-Utec. This paper is
a summary and update of the paper [13], thanks to the co-authors and to
Paul Spudis (LPI), Ben Bussey (ESTEC), Quirien Wijnands (TUD) and
Saina Ghandchi (CalSpace).
References
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clementine/clementine.html.
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Netherlands 1995.
3 Lunar Prospector Webpage: lunar.arc.nasa.gov.
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1981.
9. www.delta-utec.com
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