Description
Airless Bodies of the Inner Solar System: Understanding the Process Affecting Rocky, Airless Surfaces focuses on the airless, rocky bodies in the inner solar system as a host unto themselves, with a unique set of processes that require a specific set of investigative techniques. The book allows readers to understand both the basic and advanced concepts necessary to understand and employ that information. Topics covered past exploration of these surfaces, changes with time, space weathering, impact cratering, creation and evolution of regolith and soils, comparison of sample and remote sensing data, dust characterization, surface composition and thoughts for future exploration.
Together these authors represent the unique combination of skills and experience required to produce an excellent book on the subject of the surfaces of airless, rocky bodies in the solar system, which will be useful both for graduate students and for working scientists.
- Written by experts with a unique combination of skills and experience on the subject of the surfaces of airless, rocky bodies in the solar system
- Addresses the unique nature of airless bodies not done in any other reference
- Organized into subjects that can be easily translated into classroom lecture points
- Represents topics that scientists will want to pinpoint and browse
Chapter
The Chapters of This Book
A Word About Asteroid Names
Chapter 2: Common Characteristics of Airless Bodies
Major Features and Phenomena Found on Airless Bodies
Retention of More Complete Impact Cratering Records at Small Sizes
Importance of Electromagnetic Processes
What's Lacking on Airless Bodies
Weather, Aeolian, and Fluvial Processes
Features and Phenomena That Pose a More Complex Picture
Chapter 3: Rethinking the Airless Bodies
Early History of the Exploration of Rocky Airless Bodies
Exploration of the Moon Prior to the 1990s
Early Exploration of Phobos and Deimos
Early Exploration of Mercury
Early Exploration of Asteroids
Formation of the Solar System
Chapter 4: Data and Techniques
Radiometric Dating: Derivation
Radiometric Dating: Practicalities
Closure Temperature-Diffusion: How the Clock is Reset
Rubidium-87/Strontium-87 (Rb-Sr) Dating
Argon-Argon (40Ar/39Ar) Dating (and K-Ar Dating)
Samarium-147/Neodymium-143 system (Sm-Nd)
U, Th-Pb (Uranium, Thorium-Lead)
Cosmic Ray Exposure (CRE) Age
Typical Soils From Moon With Maturity Indices
The Age of Rocky Surfaces
Crater Counting (Size-Frequency Distributions)
Secondary Craters: Counting Issues
Crater Statistics Programs
Boulders, Measurements and Techniques
Determining the Composition of Rocky Surfaces
Interpreting Spectral Measurements
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Remote Elemental Composition Techniques
Chapter 5: Comparing Sample and Remote-Sensing Data—Understanding Surface Composition
The Importance of Comparing Data Sets
Bulk Density: Implications for Surface Composition, Interior Structure, and Volatile Content
Meteorite Types—Compositional Classification
Telling the Story of a Meteorite
Interplanetary Dust Particles
Sample Collection Missions
Asteroid Spectral Classes
Chapter 6: Space Weathering
What is Space Weathering?
The Problem of Space Weathering
The Processes of Space Weathering
Inclusions in Grains and Space Weathering
Space Weathering on Low-Albedo Surfaces
Space Weathering at Other Wavelengths
Sulfur and Space Weathering
Solar Wind Implantation and Plasma Interactions
Dating Surfaces With Space Weathering
``Resetting´´ Space Weathering Effects
Chapter 7: The Creation of Regolith and Soils-Impact Cratering and Other Processes
Impact Events and Crater Formation
Small-Scale Impact Events
Depth and Retention of Regolith
Chapter 8: Regolith and Dust: Movement and Transport
Emplacement and Mixing of Impact Ejecta
Downslope Movement of Regolith
Seismic Shaking and Regolith Convection
Asteroid Regolith ``Ponds´´
Electrostatic Effects and Levitation
The Physics of Dust Levitation
Chapter 9: Orbital Considerations
Basics of Celestial Mechanics
Orbit Changes From ``Surface Processes´´
Poynting-Robertson Drag and Solar Radiation Pressure
Chapter 10: Volatiles: Origin and Transport
Origin of Volatiles: Where Does an Airless Body Get Volatiles?
The Accretion and Evolution of Endogenic Volatiles
Added Volatiles, Exogenic
Detecting Volatiles on Airless, Rocky Bodies
Retention of Volatiles: How Do Airless Bodies Keep Volatiles?
Volatile Losses: How Do Airless Bodies Lose Volatiles?
Volatiles on Specific Airless Worlds
Volatiles on Larger Worlds-Mercury and the Moon
Volatiles on Smaller Worlds-Dwarf Planets, Asteroids, and Small Satellites
Volatiles: Other Asteroids
Volatiles: Phobos and Deimos
Chapter 11: Unusual Processes and Features
More About Asteroid Families
The Phobos and Deimos Dust Tori
Transient Lunar Phenomena
Resurfacing by Tides and Temperatures
Irregular Mare Patches, Ahuna Mons, and Ceres Faculae
Chapter 12: Future Exploration
Community-Defined Science Goals
Future Robotic Missions-Moon
Future Robotic Missions-Mercury
Future Robotic Missions-Phobos and Deimos
Future Robotic Missions-Asteroids
Missions Selected for Funding
Additional Mission Concepts
In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Concepts
Human Exploration and Regolith
Data Storage and Processing
Data Storage and Data Mining
Processing: Citizen Science