The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has just revealed the first comprehensive high-definition geological atlas of the Moon. This maps our natural satellite at a scale of 1:2.5 million.
China has great ambitions regarding our natural satellite. Indeed, the country is carrying out exploration missions to the Moon and will even bring back to Earth a sample collected on its hidden side. China has also managed to grow a real miniature vegetable garden and hope send astronauts there – or rather, taikonauts – in 2030.
Thus, in order to carry out these multiple projects, China has just established an extremely precise atlas, particularly with the aim of establishing navigation strategies not based on a global positioning system (GPS). According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the work includes data on 12,341 craters81 impact basins, 17 types of lithologies, 14 types of structures and other geological information on the lunar surface.
A map of the Moon twice as precise as the previous one
If this atlas is likely to help scientists better understand the Moon, it could also be useful in order to select an exploration area or better, establishing a lunar base. Besides, China has already expressed its desire to establish a permanent base there.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences states: “Lunar geological maps published during the Apollo era have not been modified for almost half a century and are still used for lunar geological research. With the improvement of lunar geological studies, these old maps can no longer meet the needs of scientific research and future lunar exploration.”
In addition to updating the geological data of the Moon, these new maps would have doubled the resolution of Apollo-era maps. Indeed, the latter, established in the 1960s and 1970s using data from the Apollo missions, display an average resolution of 1:5,000,000, compared to 1:2,500,000 for the new Chinese Atlas.
China has also published a book titled Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon. Both works are available in Chinese and English and have been integrated into a digital platform called Digital Moon.
Source : universetoday
