Theoretical analysis of the electric potential and the electrostatic dust transport around the Shackleton crater in the Lunar south pole region  

作　　者：Chengxuan ZHAO Hong GAN Lianghai XIE Yi WANG Yongjun WANG Jingyan HONG 

机构地区：[1]Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology and Physics Laboratory,Lanzhou Institute of Physics,China Academy of Space Technology,Lanzhou,730000,China [2]Space Environment and Payload Engineering Center,Lanzhou Institute of Physics,China Academy of Space Technology,Lanzhou,730000,China [3]Deep Space Exploration Laboratory,Hefei,230026,China [4]State Key Laboratory of Space Weather,National Space Science Center,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,100190,China [5]Joint Research and Development Center of Chinese Science Academy and Shen County,Liaocheng,252400,China [6]School of Transportation,Lanzhou Jiaotong University,Lanzhou,730000,China

出　　处：《Science China Earth Sciences》2023年第10期2278-2286,共9页中国科学（地球科学英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.42174216,12075108,41903058&62371215);the Pre-research Project on Civil Aerospace Technologies by CNSA(Grant Nos.D050106,D020201);the Frontier Science Research Program of Deep Space Exploration Laboratory(Grant No.2022-QYKYJH-HXYF023);the Pandeng Program of National Space Science Center,Chinese Academy of Sciences。

摘　　要：In recent years,the Lunar south pole region(SPR)has become the focus of future explorations due to its special illumination condition and the possible water ice in permanently shadowed craters around it.The Shackleton crater locates almost exactly at the Moon’s south pole and has become the hottest destination for several landing missions,including the Chang’E-7 mission.However,people still know little about the electric potential and the dust environment around this crater.In this paper,we develop an analytical model to study the surface potential and the electrostatic dust transport around the crater.It is found that the crater’s floor can be negatively charged due to the topographic shielding,and the surface potential is as low as-175 V on the leeward crater wall.Accordingly,a large number of charged dust grains can be emitted from the leeward crater wall,with a maximum height of about 10 km and a horizontal distance of about 40 km,which brings a local dust cloud around the crater.Both the topographic shielding and the local dust cloud are qualitatively verified by a numerical simulation,in which a typical dust density of 10^(4)-10^(5)m^(-3)is found near the crater.Our results are important to the environmental assessment for future explorations near the crater.Furthermore,the results are helpful to understand the surface charging and the electrostatic dust transport on the other airless bodies.

关 键 词：Lunar south pole Lunar crater Solar wind plasma Lunar dust Surface charging 

分 类 号：P184[天文地球—天文学]