Abstract
In 2007, the National Academies designated “understanding the structure
& composition of the lunar interior” (to provide fundamental
information on the evolution of a differentiated planetary body) as the
second highest lunar science priority that needed to be addressed. Here
we present the current status of the planned response of the Lunar
Geophysical Network (LGN) team to the upcoming New Frontiers-5 AO. The
Moon represents an end-member in the differentiation of rocky planetary
bodies. Its small size (and heat budget) means that the early stages of
differentiation have been frozen in time. But despite the success of the
Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), significant unresolved
questions remain regarding the nature of the lunar interior and tectonic
activity. General models of the processes that formed the present-day
lunar interior are currently being challenged. While reinterpretation of
the Apollo seismic data has led to the identification of a lunar core,
it has also produced a thinning of the nearside lunar crust from 60-65
km in 1974 to 30-38 km today. With regard to the deep mantle, Apollo
seismic data have been used to infer the presence of garnet below
~500 km, but the same data have also been used to
identify Mg-rich olivine. A long-lived global lunar geophysical network
(seismometer, heat flow probe, magnetometer, laser retro-reflector) is
essential to defining the nature of the lunar interior and exploring the
early stages of terrestrial planet evolution, add tremendous value to
the GRAIL and SELENE gravity data, and allow other nodes to be added
over time (ie, deliver the International Lunar Network). Identification
of lateral and vertical heterogeneities, if present within the Moon,
will yield important information about the early presence of a global
lunar magma ocean (LMO) as well as exploring LMO cumulate overturn. LGN
would also provide new constraints on seismicity, including shallow
moonquakes (the largest type identified by ALSEP with magnitudes between
5-6) that have been linked to young thrust fault scarps, suggesting
current tectonic activity. Advancing our understanding of the Moon’s
interior is critical for addressing these and many other important lunar
and Solar System science and exploration questions, including protection
of astronauts from the strong shallow moonquakes.