A Proposal of exploration mission of lunar shallow structure

Abstract

The lunar shallow structure is a key to clarify local geological feature and to construct lunar base and utilizing resources (such as regolith). Past direct exploration of lunar shallow structure is mainly conducted by Apollo program. In this program, some experiments using artificial moonquake has been conducted. However, most of data used determining internal structure of the moon has relied on natural moonquakes, and these data has major problem such as data quality. Therefore, we now propose the possibility of the mission detecting shallow structure of the moon using artificial moonquake for obtaining basic data for future construction of the lunar base and utilization of regolith. We will present some proposals of mission of lunar shallow structure using lunar seismic waves suitable for unmanned exploration after SELENE program and primary manned mission phase.