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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
国际空间科学研究所 - 北京
                 太空|TAIKONG
                      ISSI-BJ Magazine
                             No. 10 June 2018

     LUNAR AND PLANETARY
         SEISMOLOGY
太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
IMPRINT                                                 FOREWORD

太空 | TAIKONG
                                    In the last few years, during different    planetary seismology. Especially
ISSI-BJ Magazine
                                    meetings, discussions took place on        since although the data available
                                    possible international cooperation         dates back from the Apollo missions
                                    on planetary science, especially           in the 70s, and there are several
Address: No.1 Nanertiao,            in the field of lunar seismology.          papers reviewing past results on
Zhongguancun,
Haidian District,                   These discussions were related             lunar seismology, the ISSI-BJ forum,
Beijing, China                      to the possibility of joint scientific     however, was rather to focus on the
Postcode: 100190
Phone: +86-10-62582811
                                    experiments on Chinese lunar               prospects of new science and future
Website: www.issibj.ac.cn           missions or European space projects.       programs, as there is still much
                                    It was subsequently suggested that         to do in terms of new science. In
Authors                             the scientists who are interested          this sense, the proposed topic has
                                    in this topic should have closer           a very high added value for ISSI-
Philippe Lognonné (IPGP, France),
Wing Huen Ip (NCU, GIA, Taiwan),    contacts to pave the way for future        BJ, especially with the success of
Yosio Nakamura (UTIG, USA),         collaboration when the opportunities       Chang’e-3, and even more for the
Wang Yanbin (SESS, PKU, China),
Mark Wieczorek (LAGRANGE/           arise. With this in mind, the ISSI-BJ      future Chinese Lunar/Planetary
OCA, France)                        Executive Director, Prof. Maurizio         missions, which may consider having
William Bruce Banerdt (JPL/         Falanga, has been invited to visit Prof.   such instruments onboard. The ISSI-
Caltech, USA), Raphael Garcia       Ip Wing Huen at the National Central       BJ Science committee members
(ISAE/SUPAERO, France), Patrick
Gaulme (MPS/MPG, Germany),          University, and, subsequently, he          have positively recommended the
Jan Harms (GSSI, Italy), Heiner     visited Prof. Wang Yanbin, Peking          forum proposal for implementation in
Igel (LMU, Germany), Taichi
Kawamura (IPGP, France), Martin     University, and Peimin M. Zhu at           2017.
Knapmeyer (DLR, Germany),           the University of Geosciences in
Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun (MPS,                                                This was the tenth science forum
                                    Wuhan and its group. After these
Germany), Shaobo Qu (HUST,
China), Daoyuan Sun (USTC,          discussions, which were including          successfully organized by the
China), Chi Wang (NSSC, CAS,        also Prof. Philippe Lognonné, they         International Space Science Institute
China), Lin Xu (NSSC, CAS,
China), Jinhai Zhang (IGG, CAS,     decided to submit an ISSI-BJ forum         in Beijing (ISSI-BJ). ISSI-BJ forums
China), Peimin M. Zhu (CUG,         proposal, i.e., from a bottom-up           are informal and free debates,
China)
                                    approach. There was no doubt that          brainstorming meeting, among some
Editor                              the addressed science topic is very        twenty-five high-level participants on
Anna Yang                           interesting and prospective: making        open questions of scientific nature.
                                    a foresight exercise on the future
                                    of the study and understanding of          This two-day Forum was held
                                    the internal structure, evolution and      between January 11-12, 2017
Front Cover                         present activity of the Lunar and          and was designed to provide a

A nearly full moon taken from the
Apollo 8 spacecraft at a point
above 70 degrees east longitude.
(Credit: NASA)

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
brainstorming opportunity to discuss the        and scientific analysis that may place the
most important science developments in          lunar and planetary seismology project and
“lunar and planetary seismology” and how        China in a central position due to its unique
to achieve them technologically, by bring       objectives and technology.
together experts in both research and
instrumentation. During the two-day forum,      This TAIKONG magazine provides an
special attention and discussions were given    overview of the scientific objectives and
to the post Apollo key science goals, as well   the overall list of proposed seismometer
as some of the key technological issues,        experiments, including instrumentation
and the next steps for future projects. In      discussed during the Forum.
total, over 30 leading scientists from eight
countries participated in this Forum.           I wish to thank the conveners and organizer of
                                                the forum Philippe Lognonné, Ip Wing Huen,
The participants recognized the very high       Yosio Nakamura, Mark Wieczorek, Wang
scientific value for innovative lunar and       Yanbin, as well as Michel Blanc who chaired
planetary seismology project especially for     the forum and welcomed all participants at
the future, and raised constructive comments    that time as the ISSI-BJ executive director.
and suggestions. They recognized that the       Special thanks are given to the ISSI-BJ staff,
Chinese Lunar and Deep Space Exploration        Lijuan En, Anna Yang, and Xiaolong Dong,
program is innovative and challenging.          for the active and successful organization of
This offers significant opportunities for       the forum. Let me also thank all those who
cooperation through project coordination        participated actively in this stimulating forum
                                                and contributed in writing this magazine.

                                                                   Prof. Dr. Maurizio Falanga

                                                                           Executive Director

                                                                           Beijing, May 2018

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
INTRODUCTION

Forum Overview

Planetary seismology is          on Earth, and provided the       seismology on other bodies
not only the best tool to        impact rate of meteoroids        of the solar system, such
determine      the    internal   on the Earth-Moon system.        as Mars, Venus, Mercury
structure of planets, but it                                      and small bodies. This
also enables us to monitor       The first goal of the            assessment was made not
the tectonic activity of         Forum was to review              only for the ongoing missions
planets, to determine the        the achievements of the          in development, but also
impact cratering rates of        Apollo seismic experiment,       in terms of seismic waves
planets, and to quantify         almost forty years after         and source modeling, with
acoustic sources of planetary    the termination of ALSEP,        specific focus on differences
atmospheres. The Apollo          with a special focus on the      between Earth and planets;
Passive Seismic Experiment       analyses made in the last        such as impact processes,
(PSE), conducted as a            fifteen years, and to identify   scattering of waves in a
component of the Apollo          the science goals of a new       high-Q crust, and interior/
Lunar Surface Experiment         post-Apollo seismic return       atmosphere coupling).
Package (ALSEP), was not         on the Moon. The Forum
only the unique example          did not only focus on the        This     FORUM       gathered
of a successful seismic          lunar interior, but also         together      multidisciplinary
experiment on a terrestrial      addressed science goals          key scientists from different
body other than Earth, but       associated with the use          countries with the objective
also one of the few examples     of the Moon as a platform        of to not only review the
of seismic data used by the      enabling the detection of        unique heritage of the lunar
science community more           gravitational waves, which       seismology         experiment
than forty years after their     is made possible by its very     and data sets, but also to
acquisition. The experiment      low background seismic           contribute to the achievement
successfully led to the          noise.                           of a deeper scientific
discovery of the crust and                                        understanding of future
core of the Moon, quake          The second goal of the           planetary seismology where
mechanisms never observed        Forum was to review the          international     coordination
                                 perspective of planetary         and collaboration is needed.

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program

The       China’s      Lunar       by working in the 200 km             orbiter,    the     Chang’E-2
Exploration Program (CLEP)         high orbit above the Moon’s          orbiter     was       launched
is divided into three phases       surface for more than 1 year,        on October 1, 2010, by
named “circling round the          to detect the topography             working in the 100 km high
moon”, “landing on the             and geomorphology, mineral           orbit above the Moon’s
moon” and “returning from          composition and the first            surface. Its spatial resolution
the moon” before 2020.             microwave detection of the           has      been      significantly
Up to now, Chang'e-1,              moon, and high-energy                increased compared to
Chang’e-2 and Chang’E-3            particles and low-energy             that of Chang’E-1, and the
have been successfully             ions near the moon. It was           images of the moon with a
launched (Figure 1).               controlled to impact the             resolution ratio of 7 m were
                                   moon and completed the               obtained. It also obtained the
The Chang’E-1 orbiter was          preset science mission in            images of topography with
launched on October 24,            2009 on March 1. As a                a resolution of 1.3 m at the
2007 carrying a total of 8         backup to the Chang’E-1              landing site for Chang’E-3,
sets of scientific payloads,

Figure 1: The roadmap of China Lunar Exploration Program. The Chang’E-5 probe was going to be launched in
November 2017, which has been delayed until 2019.

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
so it was called the guide          by a moon-based ultraviolet     and poles of the moon.
satellite of Chang’E-3. Since       telescope (LUT). This makes     Implemented missions are
then, the Chang’E-2 satellite       China the third nation to       mainly limited on the surface
conducted an extended               have achieved soft landing      of the moon. And some
mission, especially with the        and patrol on the moon after    seismic data is acquired
close flyby of asteroid Toutatis    the United States and the       by the Apollo program
to obtain a 10 m-resolution         former Soviet Union.            more than 40 years ago,
image. By implementing                                              therefore, there is a lack
the       Chang’E-1        and      The Chang’E-5 probe was         of understanding of the
Chang’E-2 satellites, China         going to be launched in         composition and structure of
has made a breakthrough             November 2017. However,         the deep part of the moon.
in the development of the           its launching has been          The South Pole-Aitken (SPA)
key technology of lunar             delayed until 2019 due          basin is the largest and
circulation exploration. The        to a rocket failure. China      oldest recognized impact
aerospace          engineering      will launch an automatic        basin on the moon, but it
system of China in lunar            sampler, which will land on     has never been detected in
exploration has been set up         the nearside of the moon in a   site. Thus, there is a lack of
preliminarily.                      new area far from the Apollo    understanding of the moon’s
                                    and Luna missions’ sampling     earliest    impact     history.
Chang’E-3 was successfully          points to collect lunar rock    China’s lunar exploration
launched on December                and soil samples, and return    program        aims      these
2, 2013, realizing soft-            them to the Earth for further   important scientific issues in
landing and patrol detection.       analysis.   The      selected   the future. At the same time,
Chang’E-3 made a lot of             landing site is located at      the use of lunar platforms
progress in terms of the            one of the youngest lunar       and in-site utilization of
geological history of the           surface areas, therefore,       resources will be considered
Imbrium basin, and revealed         through the isotopic dating     in the future.
that large-scale volcanic           of these returned samples,
activities in the region can        we shall modify crater dating   The                Chang’E-4
last much later. It was the first   methods and provide a           mission       includes       a
time to carry out observation       more accurate time scale for    telecommunication       relay
in the earth's plasmasphere         the evolution of the surface    satellite, two mini satellites
in a global scale meridian          of the moon and terrestrial     around the moon, a lander
view by the Extreme Ultra-          planets.                        and a rover, which will be
Violet (EUV) camera, and                                            launched in 2018, and soft-
monitored variable stars,           So far, human’s probe has       landing and patrol detection
bright active galactic nuclei       never landed on the far side    will be carried out for the

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
first time on the Aitken basin    exploration of the moon,         mission is mainly to collect
on the far side of the moon.      to obtain information on         lunar samples in the South
At the same time, the low         the topography, mineral          Pole and SPA, and return
frequency radio noise on          composition and elemental        them to the Earth for further
the far side of the moon is       composition, and volatile        analysis. This mission will
used to observe the low-          content of the moon              use the Chang’E-6 backup
frequency radio astronomy.        by means of cameras,             of Chang’E-5 to carry out,
                                  spectrometers, neutron &         which will reveal the early
Systematically considering        gamma spectrometers, X-ray       impact history and deep
the major scientific issues of    spectrometers and mass           material composition of the
the moon and the utilization of   spectrometers. Information       moon. The third mission
the lunar resources, Chinese      on the structure of the South    mainly aims at the in-site
scientists and technical          Pole from shallow to deep        utilization of the resources,
experts have proposed             level is obtained by means       and carries out moon-based
an overall plan through           of radar, seismograph and        scientific observation on the
continuous exploration to         magnetometer to reveal the       lunar surface. It will carry out
preliminarily build a research    chemical composition and         an in-site rare-gas extraction
station on the lunar South        structure of the deep part       test in the lunar soil, and a
Pole by implementing 3-4          of the moon. Water (ice) in      series of experiments on
missions during the period        the permanent shadow area        small terrestrial ecosystems
of 2020-2030.                     was detected in site to reveal   on the lunar surface in order
                                  the content, distribution        to provide technical support
The first mission will            and source of water and          for future manned lunar
carry out in the South            volatiles on the surface         landing and lunar resource
Pole   a   comprehensive          of the moon. The second          utilization.

Goals and Challenges of Planetary Seismology

The early 1960s not               instrumentations and the         Oscillations [41] and the
only revolutionized Earth         occurrence of the M=9.5          first attempt to deploy
seismology with the first         mega earthquake in Chile         seismometer     on   body
observations      of Earth        in 1960, but also projected      other than Earth, with
free   oscillations, made         seismology in the solar          the Ranger 3-4-5 landers
possible by both new steps        system, with both the first      (Figure 2), all equipped
in long period seismic            observations of the Solar        with      an   autonomous

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
seismometer in a survival          seismometer, precursor of        tide, but also gravitational
module. None of the three          the Apollo Lunar Network,        waves. See [47] for a more
missions launched in 1962          deployed progressively by all    detailed review of Planetary
succeeded in this first extra-     landing missions (Figure 3),     seismology.
terrestrial endeavor. The first    including the last one, Apollo
success was the Apollo 11          17, with a gravimeter which      The science motivations in
first human landing mission,       was not only designed for        the seismic exploration of
with the solar-powered             monitoring moonquakes and        the Sun, planets and small

Figure 2: Ranger lander during its integration       Figure 3: Apollo seismometer on the Moon.
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 1961-1962.      The Apollo seismometer is protected by a
The Ranger seismometer was located in the top        Mylar cover, which goal is to stabilize the
sphere, made of balsa wood, and was designed         ground   temperature.    The   power    system
to survive the crash of the sphere, ejected before   and data transmission system is beneath
the impact of the Ranger on the Moon surface.        the   seismometer.   5   seismometers     were
None of the missions succeeded. From [40].           successfully deployed by the Apollo with the
                                                     Apollo mission 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16 and
                                                     with the Apollo 11 powered by solar panels,
                                                     all seismometers operated with nuclear power
                                                     source until September 1977. From [39].

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
bodies of our solar system        geophysical technic is the        are required to confirm our
are related to key questions      only one able to illuminate       understanding of the Earth-
of the formation of planets       the interior of planets and       Moon formation scenario.
and of their geological           to extrapolate in depth
evolution over billions years.    the     mineralogical   and       Further in the Solar system
                                  geochemical measurements          are Venus and Mars. Venus
The Moon is the relic of          performed with surface            is almost Earth like in size,
debris, generated by the          or crustal rocks, including       but has been unable to store
impact of a Mars-sized (or        magmatic        ones  which       its carbon dioxide in the crust
possibly slightly smaller)        sample the planet deeper          which lead to a catastrophic
planet on the early Earth.        than its crust.                   atmospheric      greenhouse
The consequences of this                                            effect and furnace surface
impact on the evolution           Lunar seismology in this          temperature of more than
of Earth are not yet fully        context is the best tool to       450°C. Mars, in contrary, has
understood, but the Earth is      measure the size of the           not been able to maintain
nevertheless accumulating         Lunar core. This size is likely   the habitable environment
several features different to     the only parameter of the         which existed 4 billions
the four terrestrial planets of   Earth-Moon system which           years ago as demonstrated
the solar system, Mercury,        provides us, more than 4.4        by the several NASA and
Venus, Earth and Mars. The        billions years after the lunar    ESA Mars orbiters and
Earth is indeed the only one      impact, the impact angle of       NASA landers and rovers
conjugating plate tectonics,      the proto-Moon on Earth.          in the last 40 years. The
surface stable liquid water,      Lunar seismology, especially      interior structure of these
active volcanism and strong       after the Grail mission,          two planets is however
magnetic dynamo. What             will be the best tool to get      still largely unknown. Only
is the importance of the          details of the Lunar crust,       the mean density of Venus
proto-moon impact in this         and especially the volume of      is known, and even if the
striking planetary evolution      anorthositic crust extracted      geodetic and gravimetric
which provided to Life all        from the post-impact molten       data on Mars are much
habitability conditions for its   Moon. This again will provide     better, they provide only
evolution toward complex          key constrains on the impact      the mean density, moment
living species?        Why is     energy partition between          inertia and tidal response
the Earth the only planet         Earth and Moon. Even if           of the planet. These three
with long duration and still      the Apollo seismic network        parameters are enough
active plate tectonics? The       provided a first sketch of the    only for constraining the
answers to both questions         Lunar interior, as developed      core size and state, crustal
request seismology, as this       in section 3 and 4, new data      thickness, type and depth

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太空|TAIKONG LUNAR AND PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY - International Space Science Institute
of mantle discontinuities,         but non-clearly       located     However, most of these
as well as mineralogy and          volcanic activity.                scientific goals still remain
temperature of all these                                             unsolved 60 years after
layers. Even with naturally        Last but not least, there are     the beginning of space
returned samples (for Mars         giant planets of our solar        exploration. Seismic signals
SNCs) or robotic sample            system, especially Jupiter        are just so vague. Most of
return mission, seismology         and Saturn, which formed          the Moonquakes and lunar
is required for providing not      so rapidly that they attracted    impacts generate waves with
only the final state of these      most of the hydrogen left by      ground displacement smaller
planets after their accretion      the Sun in the proto-planetary    than one nanometer, with
and differentiation (through       nebula. Here as well, the         expected core phases 20
the measurement of the size        most exciting questions are       times smaller. Marsquakes
of their core and thickness of     deep inside their surface.        are possibly larger, but the
crust) but also their present      Again, the unknowns are           surface temperature of the
thermal state and deep             the mass of their core, as        planet varies by more than
mineralogy composition (by         the later is controlling the      60°Celsius and strong winds
correlating the measured           primordial        gravitational   blow on its surface. Yet, Mars
seismic      velocities     with   attraction generating the         is almost a paradise when
mineralogical        constrains    hydrogen nebula collapse          compared to Venus, where
from both sample analysis          or the deep transition            the surface temperature
and high pressure laboratory       phase, which control their        exceeds 450°C. Installing
experiments). Further steps        present dynamic and future        a seismic station on another
can even be imagined with          evolution. And here also,         planet is therefore a long
seismic network or seismic         seismology is the only way        -term and costly effort. This
waves       imaging,      which    to get access to these            succeeded with the Apollo
could (like the Earth global       hidden worlds, that time with     program, but mostly due
seismic network) image the         remote sensing technics. It       to the strategic importance
convective patterns in the         can be either implemented         of Apollo during the cold
mantle beneath volcanic            on Earth telescopes, as           war between the USA and
province, either on Mars,          those monitoring the free         the Soviet Union. On the
where       high      resolution   oscillations of Jupiter, or in    otber hand, opportunities
imaging has identified young       Space, as demonstrated            for Mars concretized in
volcanic calderas and lava         by Cassini-Huygens, which         real missions only three
flow with very few impact          detected in Saturn rings          times, and unfortunately
cratering, or on Venus where       subtle feature associated         started with two failures
atmospheric di-oxide sulfur        to ring resonances with the       in 1976 and 1996. Viking
demonstrates a still ongoing       Saturn free oscillations.         failed for seismology with

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only one sensor deployed        after launch after losing its   November 2018 is therefore
successfully on the Mars'       orbiter, and surface small      the next opportunity for
surface, but with a lack of     stations with penetrators,      planetary seismology in
seismic detection due to        all four equipped with          the 20 years periodic cycle
the non-capability of the       seismometers. The launch        of seismological launch
lander to deploy the sensor     of InSight, described in        windows in the solar system.
to the ground. And 20 years     section 5a took place in May
later, Mars 96 failed shortly   2018. Its landing on Mars in

                                                    Figure 4: Viking seismometer on the
                                                    deck of the Viking -2 lander. The exobiology
                                                    driven goals of the Viking project prevented
                                                    the lander from providing the necessary
                                                    resources for a deployment on the Mars
                                                    surface. Out of the two Viking landers,
                                                    only the seismometer on Viking-2 operated
                                                    nominally. The signals were corrupted
                                                    during the day time by the lander's vibration
                                                    due to the wind, while the sensitivity of the
                                                    instrument was not high enough to record
                                                    signals during the night. From [1] .

                                                    Figure 5: One of the Mars 96 small
                                                    stations during the integration of the
                                                    OPTIMISM seismometer by IPGP/INSU
                                                    engineers. The station was expected to
                                                    stay on the Mars surface to protect the
                                                    instrument which had been designed for
                                                    the very low power delivery of the small
                                                    Radio-Thermal Generators of the station.
                                                    Sensitivity at 1Hz was about 1 ng, i.e. 10-8
                                                    m/s2 in ground acceleration. The mission
                                                    was lost shortly after launch in November
                                                    1996. From [43].

                                                                  太空|TAIKONG                11
THE APOLLO SEISMIC EXPERIMENTS

What started the lunar             shallow seismic structure        did     observe     meteoroid
and planetary seismology,          from signals generated by        impacts, but initially we did
essentially, were the Apollo       a thumper and mortals and        not recognize them on the
seismic           experiments,     recorded with a linear array     seismograms because they
conducted nearly half a            of three geophones, was          looked so much different
century ago, from 1969 to          conducted at the Apollo 14       from what we see here on
1977. The Apollo missions,         and 16 landing sites. Lunar      the Earth from any impulsive
in which the U.S. astronauts       Seismic Profiling Experiment     source. We learned later that
landed on the Moon,                (LSPE), to derive somewhat       this was due to the significant
for the first time on any          deeper      structures   with    difference in seismic signal
extraterrestrial body, also        signals      generated     by    transmission through the
provided us an opportunity to      explosive           packages     highly fractured near-surface
deploy seismic instruments         detonated at distances up        layers of the Moon with
on the Moon to record              to about 3 km and impact of      very low intrinsic seismic
seismic signals, with which        Lunar Module at about 9-km       attenuation. The discovery
to infer the internal structure,   distance recorded on a 2-D       of deep moonquakes at a
both static and dynamic, of        array of four geophones, was     depth half way to the centre
the Moon. Passive Seismic          conducted at the Apollo 17       of the Moon, which occur
Experiments (PSE), with a          landing site. LSPE was also      synchronously to the tides
3-component long-period            turned on from time to time      caused by the Earth and
(medium-period in current          to record natural seismic        the Sun, was a big surprise.
standard) and a single-            events. At the Apollo 17         Another surprise was the
component         short–period     landing site, Lunar Surface      shallow moonquakes of very
seismic      sensors,      were    Gravimeter (LSG) to detect       high frequency content that
conducted at the Apollo 11,        gravitational waves also         occur in the upper mantle.
12, 14, 15 and 16 landing          functioned as a short-period     They are much fewer than
sites (Figure 3), and all but      seismometer and detected         other events but include
the Apollo 11 instrument           natural seismic events till it   some of the most energetic
recorded the seismic data          was turned off in 1977.          events observed. The real
continuously till the data                                          cause of these events is
transmission was terminated        Most of what we observed         still debated. Yet another
at the end of September,           during the Apollo missions       surprise was the observation
1977.       Active      Seismic    was a series of big surprises    of thermal moonquakes that
Experiment (ASE), to derive        to us. As expected, we           occur near the surface of the

 12       太空|TAIKONG
moon clearly responding to      after a continuous detection    keep working on acquiring
the large diurnal temperature   of moonquakes, is helpful       more data of higher quality.
changes.                        to move forward towards
                                resolving     the     mystery   Furthermore, a new tool
What did we learn by setting    of     both      earthquakes    called CWPAR (Clipped
up seismic stations on          and             moonquakes,     Waveform Pick-up and
the Moon? Of course, as         using synchronous data          Restoration, available from
planned, we learned how         acquisition from both the       IRIS) is developed to restore
the interior of the Moon        Earth and the Moon. Such a      the clipped waveforms
looked like, at least as a      seismic array would begin to    [97], which could rescue
first approximation.      We    be set up around 2020-2030      some moderately saturated
also learned that there still   in the SPA basin via China's    waveforms . Rescuing parts
are seismic activities inside   lunar exploration program.      of precious Apollo data
the Moon. However, there        Thus, an important message      would greatly enhance the
were many things that were      is: Expect the unexpected!      useable waveform data
unexpected. We found                                            archives.
out that there are types of     The initial analyses of the
seismic events that are not     Apollo seismic data were
normally observed on the        done with computers and
Earth. We also found out        analysis techniques available
that the way seismic signals    more than four decades ago.
transmit through the Moon       Since then, there have been
is quite different from the     tremendous improvements
way they do here on Earth.      in both of these areas, and
This kind of situation may      new discoveries are being
apply whenever we go to         made with the old data.
another planetary body with     These new results are
an environment different        discussed in the following
from the Earth. Furthermore,    section. On the other hand,
these findings also provide     the Apollo data, the only
new       perspective      to   extraterrestrial seismic data
understanding our own           we now have, are very limited
Earth. A seismic station        in scope, both spatially and
array on the lunar surface,     temporally. Thus, we must

                                                                 太空|TAIKONG             13
LUNAR SOURCES AND LUNAR STRUCTURE AS
            SEEN BY APOLLO

Lunar Sources

The Moon is often seen            seven years of the Apollo         seismic signals with the
as a tectonically dead            seismic network operation         LP instruments, and many
terrestrial body. The Apollo      were however able to              more events seen on the
seismometers during the           detect more than 12,500           SP instruments remain

Figure 6: Seismic activity at Apollo 14 seismic station. The number of events per year is shown,
for the different type of lunar events. Grow zone is corresponding to amplitudes which are hidden
on Earth by the microseismic noise. These amplitudes are those of the seismic waves at 2 sec of
period, with detection threshold of the Apollo instruments as low as 10-10 m/s. Reprinted from [46]

 14       太空|TAIKONG
uncatalogued.     Figure 6    from the release of stresses    in the determination of
shows the statistics of the   associated with the global      the cristal lunar thickness.
detection on the horizontal   thermoelastic cooling of the    But many natural impacts
component of Apollo 14        Moon, and show similarities     were also detected, as the
station per year, based       to the Earth's intraplate       Moon has no atmosphere
on the seismicity catalog     earthquakes which also          to protect its surface from
made by Y. Nakamura,          exhibit much higher stress      the flux of meteorites. They
from Univ.ersity of Texas.    drops (for a given seismic      constitute about one fifth of
This is therefore almost      moment) than plate tectonic     the detected events (1742
5 events per day, in term     earthquakes.                    of the 9315 identified and
of detection. Most of the                                     classified events) on the
events have however very      The other moon seismic          Apollo seismic network, and
small amplitudes and could    signals were much more          the strongest ones have
not be detected on Earth      exotic with respect to          amplitudes comparable to
at such distance, because     Earth standard. The Moon        the largest moonquakes.
of the Earth microseismic     very low seismic noise if       Figure 7 shows the signals
noise.                        giving indeed a window          recorded for one of the
                              to seismologists to detect      largest natural impact which
The moonquakes the most       seismic sources never or very   mass is estimated to 25-30
comparable to earthquakes     weakly observed on Earth.       tons and impact energy to
are the shallow moonquakes    Controlled impacts of the       5-6 Tera Joules, equivalent
which occur at depth up       Saturn IVB upper stage or       to 1.2-1.45 kiloTons of TNT.
to 200 km. 28 events were     of the Lunar Ascent Vehicule    These large energies are
detected during the Apollo    are the first example. The 15   linked to the very high impact
operation, but, in contrary   tons SIVB upper stage was       speed of the interplanetary
to Earth, they do not show    in addition tracked by NASA     meteorites when they hit
obvious correlation with      when it was impacting the       the lunar surface. The mean
surface features on the       Moon at about 2.5 km/s and      value is about 20 km/s, but
Moon. On Earth, the largest   provided almost controlled      15% have a speed of 30
events will have body waves   seismic        sources     to   km/s or more. In addition,
magnitudes ranging from       seismologists, with known       these impacts make ejecta
4.8 to 5.5, and generate      location and time. P and S      during the crater formation,
high seismic frequency        wave arrival times where        which generate, through
[63], which denotes a very    therefore directly providing    momentum conservation,
fast rupture process with     the average seismic velocity    an extra push on the lunar
high stress-drop. They are    of the lunar crust, and         surface, leading to a source
interpreted as resulting      provided the best constraints   almost twice larger than the

                                                               太空|TAIKONG              15
Figure 7: Apollo Records of the large natural impact occurring on November, 14, 1976, recorded
at the Apollo stations. Data are shown for the long-period seismometer (LPX, Y, Z) plus the vertical
axis of the short-period seismometer (SPZ) in ground velocity. The mass of the impact has been
estimated to about 25-35 tons, assuming an impact velocity of 20 km/s. The lunar globe was taken
from the LROC observation of NASA (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14011) and Apollo
stations and deep moonquake nests were added by the authors. Figure reprinted from [44].

 16       太空|TAIKONG
one related to the impact        The advantage of impacts          tracking failure) for which
momentum transfer only.          is the reduced number of          the precise impact location
In contrary to the shallow       focal parameters, limited         is also now known from
moonquakes however, the          to geographical location          LRO imaging (e.g. [93]). As
seismic source, related to       and time. Moreover, for           an alternative to the artificial
the impact shock wave            artificial impacts     these      impacts, Lognonné et al.
propagation in the near          three quantities are known        [49], Yamada et al. [94]
surface lunar regolith, is of    with a high precision, when       proposed recently to monitor
relatively low frequency, with   the impacts can be radio-         the flashes generated by the
shock wave propagation           tracked.     This was the         impacts (e.g. [66], [78], [9])
time ranging from 1/3 sec to     case for most of the Lunar        on the near side and even
about 3 sec for the largest      impacts (with the exception       the far side [55] in order to
impacts.                         of the SIV-B 17 impact,           obtain impact data for future
                                 which suffered from a radio-      lunar seismic experiments.

Notes on the observational Study of Lunar Impact Flashes

Ground-based       telescope     years [3], [67], [66], [95],      complemented by the list of
observations of lunar impact     [96], [66]. More recently,        61 impact events reported
flashes which mechanism          Suggs et al. [79] produced        by Rembold et al. [69] based
was first suggested by           a summary of the detections       on the observations made
Melosh [54] can provide a        of 126 lunar impact flashes       with the 35-cm telescope
convenient way to monitor        (with R- magnitude ~ 7.5          stationed in Socorro, New
the fluxes of inter planetary    - 10) obtained between            Mexico. In Europe, new
meteoroids and small bodies      2006 and 2011 by using            activities have also been
(~100 g – 10 kg) in the near-    the twin 35-cm telescopes         initiated. These include the
Earth space environment.         of the Automated Lunar            SPOSH project for Smart
Even though the observation      and Meteor Observatory            Panoramic Optical Sensor
times are limited to the new     (ALAMO) at NASA/MSFC              Head for observations of
moon phase, the effective        in    Huntsville,    Alabama.     transient optical flashes on
detection area is large (~       Their    statistical    results   the nightside of the Moon
1.3x106 km2). Successful         showed that the meteoroid         [64], [65], and the NELIOTA
measurements have been           impact rates peaked at            project of the European
obtained by a number of          major meteor stream. This         Space Agency for a 1.2-
research groups over the         important data set has been       m telescope [7] that has

                                                                     太空|TAIKONG              17
just made the first flash          meteoroid      bombardment      body-wave magnitudes as
temperature ever [8]. There        can provide very useful         low as 1.6. Their epicentre
is also a plan to establish a      information on the precise      is very deep, with source
lunar impact flash telescope       times and locations of          depths between 700-1200
(LIFT) in Xinjiang, China,         moon-quake sources for          km and more surprisingly,
as a component of an               lunar seismology. An attempt    deep      moonquakes      are
international       monitoring     was made to introduce a         originating from well located
network. This field is therefore   seismometer        experiment   sources, which can repeat
in a rapid expansion phase         on the lunar nightside for      and repeat similar quake
probably because of the            the Chang’E 4 mission           months       after   months.
increasing attention to the        with the relay spacecraft       The number of known
establishment of research          at the L2 point serving as      source regions for deep
facilities on the lunar surface    the observation station.        moonquakes is currently
by several space-faring            Even though the proposed        estimated as ~250 [61], [62]
nations.                           experiment        was     not   and the most active source
                                   accepted, mainly because        located at depth of about
The orbital observations           of the time constraint,         850 repeated 320 times a
of the LADEE spacecraft            there are really no technical   Deep Moonquake (DMQ)
showed clearly that the lunar      showstoppers. We believe        during the Apollo mission.
dust cloud and exospheric          that such a project will be     Deep moonquakes originate
environment are closely            realized in near future.        therefore     from    regions
connected to the impact                                            that appear to undergo
effects of the interplanetary      Deep moonquakes are the         repeated failure, giving rise
meteoroids [11], [81], [80].       last example of very atypical   to sets of moonquakes
In addition, the comparative       quakes with respect to          with similar waveforms and
study of the ALAMO record          the Earth standard, and         occurrence times not only
of the impact flashes and          constitute about 60% of         periodic but related to the
the high-resolution imaging        the quakes detected on          tides generated by Earth
data of small craters from         the Moon, and therefore         on the Moon. However, the
the Lunar Reconnaissance           to more than 7000 quakes        relationship with the tides
Orbiter (LRO) camera has           over the almost 8 years of      and explanation of the DMQ
led to a new understanding         operation. Most of the Deep     has been a longstanding
of the generation and              Moonquakes are however          puzzle for seismologist.
evolution of lunar regolith        very small in magnitude,        DMQ respond for example to
[77]. Last but not the least,      and the smallest reported       several cycles of the Earth-
the monitoring of optical          moonquakes       correspond     Moon orbit but also to more
transients produced by             to terrestrial events with      subtle cyclic features of the

 18       太空|TAIKONG
Earth’s, Sun’s, and Moon’s         detected on the moon and          by one order of magnitude
orbits. The most recent            the Apollo seismometer            might therefore thousand
analysis     are    proposing      remained      therefore    flat   impacts per year and will
that the faults of the Deep        between      two     detected     also discover if the Deep
moonquakes sources, due            quakes. Figure 7 shows            Moonquakes need to be
to the repeating activity of       however that the number           larger than a given magnitude
these sources over the last        of quake and impact is            to occur. Very likely, a micro-
hundred millions years, has        increasing when the quakes        seismic noise regime exists
been abraded so much that          have smaller amplitude. This      on the Moon, generated by
the surface of these fault is      increase is roughly inversely     the very numerous small
extremely smooth and with          proportional to the amplitude     impacts and small deep
very little asperity, which        of the signals for impact         moonquakes. It is estimated
enable regularly the release       and is even faster for the        to be smaller than 1/100
of the relatively small tidal      quakes from the strongest         the Apollo resolution, which
stress of the lunar solid tides.   deep moonquake. Future            open exiting perspective for
                                   instruments on the Moon           very sensitive instruments,
Despite the large number           with better sensitivity will      including for the detection of
of detected quakes and             therefore detect much more        astrophysical signals to be
their long duration, no            signals, and instruments          detailed in further section.
micro-seismic noise was            with performances better

Determining the Mechanisms of the Deep Moonquakes (DMQs)

The accurate determination         attempts       have      been     tide, i.e. tide-driven vs. tide-
of the mechanisms of               applied to determine the          triggering, are quite difficult,
the DMQs is the base for           source mechanism, such            considering the nature of
simulating seismic wave            as     using      polarization    seismic signals records, and
propagation inside the Moon,       angle of S waves [38], P/S        the sparse Apollo seismic
deriving accurate structural       amplitude ratio [59], [91],       network. In the source
model, and understanding           and analysis of tidal stress      mechanism inversion, long
the physical and chemical          [89]. However, further works      period records are preferred
state of the lunar interior.       on determining whether the        to avoid the high frequency
It is a challenging problem        source is a shear failure, and    coda in Lunar seismic
even for the earthquake            full evaluation of the links      records. Furthermore, large
based studies. Several             between the DMQs and the          uncertainties in the source

                                                                       太空|TAIKONG              19
locations    and    velocity       Zhu and Helmberger [98] to       equipped with broadband
models require methods             generate stable solutions.       seismometers, will be the
using     whole  waveform          For future missions to Moon      key to uncover the deep
information with special           or other planets, a well-        quake sources underneath.
treatment, as developed by         distributed seismic network,

Lunar Structure

The internal structure of          is consistent with the high      down to 100 km depth is
the Moon has been deeply           porosity levels inferred from    consistent with the GRACE
inferred from seismological        GRACE gravity data analysis      data analysis suggesting
data of Apollo Passive             (about 12%).                     that the non zero porosity
Seismic Experiment, but                                             zone is extending below the
also from active seismic           The      crustal    structure,   crust down into the mantle.
experiments     of    Apollo       in particular the crustal
missions. These data have          thickness estimate, varied       Concerning the mantle
been processed almost              a lot with time. The average     structure, the discontinuity
continuously during the            Moho depth was estimated         at 500 km depth observed
past 40 years, bringing            at 60km by the early studies,    in the early studies was
new scientific results from        and is now estimated             demonstrated to be due to
the seismic properties of          between 45 km and 34 km          the parametrisation of the
the sub-surface through            [6]. However, the Apollo         model. Recent models favour
the deep mantle and core           data did not succeed in          continuous evolution of the
structure.                         a proper estimate of the         seismic/density parameters,
                                   crustal thickness due to         which is consistent with
Figure 8      presents      a      the difficulty to retrieve the   the geodynamical models
compilation of global seismic      body waves reflected and         predicting that no strong
models published by various        converted at Moho within         phase change is expected
teams using mainly seismic         the strong scattering signal     into lunar mantle [37].
and geodetic information.          coming from the crust.
                                   Other studies also estimated     The deep mantle and
The regolith and sub-surface       the scattering level of the      core structures are still
structure obtained by the          Moon, and demonstrated           strongly debated. Some
various teams presents very        that the scattering is coming    models predict a decrease
low seismic velocities and         from the first 100 km of the     of seismic velocities (in
densities in the first kilometer   planet [27]. The extension of    particular S wave velocities)
of the planet [75] . This result   the Moon scattering zone         at the base of the mantle.

 20       太空|TAIKONG
0                                       0                                          0

                                     -10                                     -10                                      -10

                                     -20                                     -20                                      -20

                                     -30                                     -30                                      -30
                     Depth (in km)

                                     -40                                     -40                                      -40

                                     -50                                     -50                                      -50

                           Toksoz_RGSP_1974
                           Nakamura_JGR_1983
                             -60                                             -60                                      -60
                           LognonneC_EPSL_2003
                           BeyneixC_PEPI_2006
                           Weber_Science_2011
                             -70
                           Garcia_PEPI_2011                                  -70                                      -70
                           Khan_JGR_2014_mean
                           Matsumoto_GRL_2015

                                     -80                                     -80                                      -80
                                           2       4       6    8                  0        2             4                   2.5          3           3.5
                                               Vp (in km/s)                                Vs (in km/s)                             Density (in g/cm   3
                                                                                                                                                           )

                       0                                                 0                                            0
                                                                                                                                               Toksoz_RGSP_1974
                                                                                                                                               Nakamura_JGR_1983
                   -200                                               -200                                         -200                        LognonneC_EPSL_2003
                                                                                                                                               BeyneixC_PEPI_2006
                                                                                                                                               Weber_Science_2011
                                                                                                                                               Garcia_PEPI_2011
                   -400                                               -400                                         -400
                                                                                                                                               Khan_JGR_2014_mean
                                                                                                                                               Matsumoto_GRL_2015

                   -600                                               -600                                         -600
  Depth (in km)

                   -800                                               -800                                         -800

                  -1000                                              -1000                                        -1000

                  -1200                                              -1200                                        -1200

                  -1400                                              -1400                                        -1400

                  -1600                                              -1600                                        -1600

                                       2   4   6       8   10   12           0         2         4            6                     4           6                  8
                                           Vp (in km/s)                                Vs (in km/s)                            Density (in g/cm        3
                                                                                                                                                               )

Figure 8: Compilation of seismic and density models produced by various researchers since the
first Apollo seismic data analysis. On top: zoom on the upper mantle and crust. On the bottom: whole
Moon seismic structure.

                                                                                                                               太空|TAIKONG                              21
The rationale is mainly that       Concerning       the    lunar   km and 380 km levels but in
S waves are not observed at        core, studies of Moon           different seismic models of
large epicentral distances,        global rotational dynamics      the Moon. Previous studies
for which P waves can be           demonstrated that a strong      were also suggesting similar
detected, and, consequently,       dissipation of tides in the     sizes based only on love
either S waves are strongly        Moon interior is needed.        numbers and geodetic data
attenuated or deflected by         The best candidate for such     [37]. However, the deep
a low velocity layer at the        a dissipation source is fluid   Moon model, including
base of the mantle. This           movement in the core at         core internal structure, will
layer was interpreted as           the core mantle boundary.       only be known if broad
presenting melt inclusions         Under such assumptions,         band sensors are deployed
by some authors [90]. This         the core size was estimated     on the Moon surface in
is consistent with analysis        in the 300-380 km radius        order to bypass the noise
of love number values              range. Two simultaneous         generated by scattering at
[37]. However, the S wave          studies tried to detect body    low frequencies.
attenuation there can also         waves reflected on the top of
be interpreted by a different      the core [90], [21]. The core
material or temperature.           radius was estimated at 330

Lunar Seismic Wave Propagation from Numerical Modeling

The        Apollo          lunar   seismic wave propagation        Wang et al. [87] performed
seismograms are dominated          in the Moon’s interior is not   numerical         modeling
by intense scattering and          well understood directly        of seismic body wave
reverberations of very long        from limited lunar seismic      propagation in the whole
duration and slow decay            waveform data. However,         Moon based on recently
of amplitude, as compared          seismic wavefield modeling      published      whole-Moon
with     typical     terrestrial   provides a complementary        model. They solved seismic
seismic      signals.        The   approach to observations        wave equations in a 2-D
commonly observed seismic          for our understanding of        cross-section of spherical
body wave or surface wave          seismic wave propagation        Moon with a staggered grid
phases for earthquake, can         inside lateral heterogeneous    pseudospectral and finite
not be clearly identified in the   and scattering Moon models      difference hybrid method.
lunar seismic waveforms.           (e.g. [87], [32], [33], [34],   The global P- and SV-wave
Hence, the process of              [10]).                          propagation in the whole

 22       太空|TAIKONG
Moon model generated               the Moon’s surface. The          frequency. Thus we expect
from a 100 km deep shallow         near surface low-velocity        intense reverberations for
moonquake and a 900 km             layer in the global model        higher frequency waveforms
deep event are shown in            plays significant roles in       as observed on the Apollo
Figure 9.     Comparisons          the development of long          seismograms.        However,
between            synthetic       and reverberating wave           modelling seismic wave
seismograms obtained for           trains following direct P        propagation in the Moon with
both deep and shallow              and S arrivals. The multiple     only the available 1-D model
moonquakes and observed            reflections and conversions      does not seem to be enough
Apollo seismograms showed          which took place inside the      to produce the slow decay
that seismic body waves            low-velocity layer formed        of energy in observations
can propagate efficiently          constructive interferences,      if other possible factors,
inside the whole Moon.             which       propagate      as    such as scattering, are not
Reflections and conversions        trapped energy and appear        considered in the model,
of body wave phases which          as reverberations in the         which is fundamentally
occurred at the internal           synthetic        waveforms.      different from the seismic
velocity discontinuities can       Amplitude and duration of the    wave propagation modeling
be observed clearly on             reverberations increase with     on the Earth.

Figure 9: Wavefield snapshots showing the generation and propagation of lunar seismic phases
in the whole-Moon model. (a) 100 km shallow moonquake and (b) 900 km deep event. Red and
green colours show P and S waves, respectively. Solid circles are the free surface, crust and mantle
interface, CMB and ICB. Two dashed circles represent the mid-mantle discontinuity and the core
mantle transition zone. (Modified from [87]).

                                                                      太空|TAIKONG               23
Jiang et al. [32] modeled        deep moonquakes at low-          order to estimate the most
global SH-wave propagation       frequency range.                 realistic strength of velocity
in the whole Moon with                                            fluctuations. They proposed
parallel modeling on a           Jiang et al. [33], [34]          that the standard deviation
PC cluster. For shallow          performed           numerical    of velocity fluctuations in the
moonquakes, the direct           modeling      of   scattering    upper lunar crust should be
wave      and     core–mantle    effects caused by small-         between 3% and 5%, and
reflections can be identified    scale heterogeneity in upper     it's likely close to 3%.
at a limited range of            Moon crust in order to explain
epicentral distance because      the lunar seismic coda. Von-     Analysis of lunar gravity data
of interactions between them     Karman auto correlation          show drastic lateral variations
and other phases. Waveform       function is used to generate     of crustal thickness around
of each phase shows strong       random velocity fluctuations,    craters on the Moon [92].
reverberations         caused    which is superimposed            Inside these craters, the
by wave trapping effects         on       the     background      lunar crustal thickness has
and multiple reflections         velocity to simulate the         very strong lateral variations,
occurred in the surface          heterogeneity     of    upper    with the thinnest thickness
low-velocity upper crust.        Moon crust. Calculations         nearly     zero      kilometer,
For deep moonquakes,             are performed for a 71 km        which makes the mantle of
the direct wave and core–        shallow moonquake and an         the Moon exposes to the
mantle reflections can be        867 km deep moonquake.           lunar surface directly, and
clearly identified over wide     Comparison of waveforms          the thickest more than 60
range of epicentral distance.    shows that scattering in         kilometers. Chen and Wang
Reverberations in waveform       upper Moon crust can             [10] performed numerical
and surface multiples are        effectively produce long-        modeling of lunar seismic
weaker than those for            duration coda. Comparison        wave propagation in a
shallow event. Increasing        with Apollo seismograms          Moon model with laterally
frequency enhances the           shows that the duration          heterogeneous crust. They
strength and duration of         and strength of coda             calculated seismic wave
waveform         reverberation   caused by scattering in          propagation of recorded
and reduces the possibility      upper Moon crust can             moonquakes        along      six
of phase identification. This    be well consistent with          profiles (Figure 11) of the
suggests that SH body            observations (Figure 10).        laterally     heterogeneous
wave phases, such as core–       Similarities         between     Moon crust and compared
mantle reflections, can be       synthetics and Apollo lunar      with Apollo data. They found
more clearly identified for      seismograms are measured         that the lateral variations
                                 via correlation coefficient in   of crustal thickness cause

 24      太空|TAIKONG
Figure 10: Comparison
  between                 Apollo
  seismograms               and
  synthetics        for    both
  shallow (SH1, 71km deep)
  and deep (A1, 867 km
  deep) moonquakes. Left
  and right figures are radial
  and vertical components.
  A0 is 1-D model and A1 is
  the model with scattering
  upper    crust.     (Modified
  from [33]).

太空|TAIKONG                25
Figure 11: Left: Crustal thickness of the Moon from GRAIL gravity and LRO topography [92] and 6
profiles along observed moonquake epicenters and Apollo stations used in numerical modeling [10].
Right: Comparing of modeling results between lateral heterogeneous and homogeneous crustal
models [10].

multiple    reflected     and    in     above        numerical    heterogeneous Moon model
converted waves, which           modeling study. Numerical        with topography for high
interfere with each other,       results support that strong      frequency wavefield should
thus contribute to the strong    scattering, low attenuation      be conducted on high
and long duration wave           and low velocity in the upper    performance      computing
coda.                            Moon crust with drastic          platform in the near future
                                 lateral variation may all        to further enhance our
The    mechanism        which    contribute to the lunar          understanding of seismic
produces lunar seismic           seismic coda. Numerical          wave propagation in the
coda is tentatively discussed    modeling for 3-D lateral         Moon.

 26      太空|TAIKONG
Post Apollo Science goals: Detection of Gravitational Waves on the
Moon and Fundamental Physics

Gravitational          waves     domain were not known              mode excitation, e.g., by
(GWs)     are     propagating    until the end of the 1960s.        Earth and Moon quakes or
perturbations of space-          Freeman Dyson was the first        atmosphere, is too frequent
time produced by the most        to calculate the response          and loud to ever observe the
powerful events in the           of a homogeneous, elastic          weak excitation from GWs.
Universe such as the collision   halfspace [16], and it took
of two black holes or neutron    much longer until the              However, a recent series of
stars. By the work of Pirani,    formalism was developed            papers has demonstrated
Weber and others, it was         to calculate the response          that scientifically interesting
known already by the end         of a laterally homogeneous         sensitivities can be achieved
of the 1950s that GWs can        spherical body by Ben-             [12], [13], [14]. The new
excite vibrations in elastic     Menahem [4].                       analyses were based on
bodies [68], [88]. While                                            sophisticated         pipelines
Weber started to develop         In the meantime, Weber et al       developed by the LIGO
his famous bar detectors, he     worked on the Lunar Surface        and Virgo communities and
and others also understood       Gravimeter Experiment [26],        modified to be applied to a
that Earth itself responds to    which was deployed on the          network of seismometers
GWs. A first analysis leading    Moon in 1972 by the crew of        or gravimeters monitoring
to an upper limit for GW         Apollo 17. Due to a design         vibrations of the Earth [14],
energy passing through the       error, it could not accomplish     [12] or Moon [13]. The Dyson
Earth was obtained in 1961       its mission to detect GWs.         half-space response was
by Forward et al. [18], and      With detailed studies in           exploited in [14], [13], which
a possible detection was         the past two decades of            is a valid model at higher
claimed 10 years later by        what GW amplitudes can             frequencies were individual
Tuman in 1971 [83].              be expected, and what              normal modes cannot be
                                 the likely GW sources are          resolved anymore, and the
Calculations    of    cross-     at the frequencies of the          Ben-Menahem          equations
sections of elastic bodies       lowest order Earth or Moon         for normal-mode excitation
towards      GWs       were      quadrupolar normal modes,          were used in [12]. In terms
presented in some of the         some scientists concluded          of GW energy density, the
earliest publications, but       that GW detection with             new constraints were better
detailed calculations of the     Earth or Moon is unlikely. It is   by more than 10 orders
coherent response in time        typically claimed that intrinsic   of magnitude than any

                                                                      太空|TAIKONG              27
previous limits obtained for       only about two orders             the Moon today in terms
example from high-precision        of magnitude sensitivity          of moonquakes and other
laboratory experiments with        improvement (in amplitude)        seismic disturbances, it is in
torsion bars.                      needs to be achieved to           fact likely that GW excitations
                                   reveal known sources.             can be found in the lowest
To estimate the prospects                                            order quadrupolar normal
of future GW detection with        2)      While moonquakes          modes.
Earth or Moon as response          are known to exist, it can
body, it is essential to realize   be expected that the              3)       Latest       seismic
that                               Moon is in fact one of the        sensors as for example
                                   quietest, large bodies in         developed for the Mars
1)       The best searches         the solar system lacking          InSight Lander mission have
so far reported in [12], [13],     above all an atmosphere.          sufficiently low instrumental
[14] targeted a stochastic         Until today, the lunar surface    noise      to   make      GW
GW background. Better              measurements essentially          observations possible.
sensitivity can in principle       measured instrument noise
be obtained by searching           and occasional seismic            For this reason, we strongly
for known signals from             transients.    The     typical,   encourage further research
known white-dwarf binaries         ambient ground vibration          on this topic, and to work
exciting normal modes. With        amplitudes might be so weak       on a possible future mission
respect to the less sensitive      that GWs can be revealed.         for deploying a new seismic
stochastic GW searches,            Given what is known about         instrument on the Moon.

                       PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY

Mars

The NASA Viking mission            related experiment, the           stay on the lander deck, the
was the first to land on           seismometers       onboard        latter being in contact with
Mars with seismometer in           the two landers of Viking         the Mars ground through feet
1976. Due to the priority          couldn’t be deployed on the       with shock absorbers. The
given to the exobiology            Martian surface and had to        Viking lander 2 seismometer,

 28       太空|TAIKONG
the only one successfully        large uncertainties remain:      in March 2019. The payload
unlocked, suffered during        ±35 km in the mean crustal       is a complete geophysical
the day time from this poor      thickness, ±450 km in the        international   observatory,
seismic coupling and mostly      core radius, leaving most, if    with a seismometer (SEIS),
detected the vibration of the    not all, of the geodynamical     a heat flux experiment (HP3,
lander to the wind forces        models of Mars evolution         D), a geodesy experiment
acting on the lander. At the     weakly constrained.              (RISE, US), a magnetometer
night however, although the                                       and the APSS (US) suite
seismometer had a very low       Seismology was therefore         of atmospheric sensors
noise, it did not detect clear   put again in the payload of a    measuring wind (TWINS,
seismic signals. Only one        Mars mission by the Russian      Spain),         atmospheric
tentative event has been         Space agency in the 1990s        temperature, and pressure
proposed as a marsquake,         and great prospects were         (US). SEIS is the primary
but the lack of wind data        put in the ambitious Mars96      instrument of the mission,
at the time of the recording     mission launched toward          lead by the French Space
leave     several    question    Mars in November 1996            Agency and consists of
marks on the true origin of      with a very large orbiter, two   a 3-axis very-broad-band
this event.                      small autonomous stations        (VBB, F) instrument and a
                                 equipped with short-period       3-axis short period (SP, UK)
No Viking seismic data           optimism       seismometers,     instrument mounted on a
have therefore been used         and      two      penetrators    Levelling system (LVL, D)
to constrain the interior        with very short periods          protected and connected by
structure of the planet,         accelerometers.           That   a Wind and Thermal Shield
and all information as of        mission failed, however,         (WTS, US) and a Tether (US)
today is related to geodesy,     shortly after the launch,        to the Instrument control
gravity and mineralogical        and fell down to the Pacific.    and acquisition electronics
investigations. This enables     Seismology had again to          (SEIS-AC, CH) located in
planetologists to be rather      wait more than 15 years.         the lander. The two sensor
confident in the fact that                                        assemblies allow for highly
Mars has a liquid core with      The third attempt was Insight,   sensitive     measurements
a radius of about half of        the Discovery mission 13         over a very broad frequency
the Martian radius and on        selected by NASA in 2012,        band, and will record most
the increase of the crustal      lead by the Jet Propulsion       of the seismic spectrum of
thickness beneath Martian        Laboratory. It was launched      the seismic signals.
volcanoes and below the          in May 2018 for a landing by
South      hemisphere,    as     the end of November 2018.        The SEIS sensor heads,
compared to North one. But       Science operation will start     composed by the combined

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