Revisiting the Apollo 17 heat flow experiment: Effect of topography and
thermal conductivity contrasts on lunar heat flow measurements
Abstract
We model the subsurface thermal field of the Apollo 17 landing site in
the Taurus-Littrow valley focusing on local topographic effects and
refraction of heat. Topographic effects have been accounted for in
original reports, but the refraction of heat due to local thermal
conductivity contrasts has not been analyzed. Refraction of heat is
evident due to the extreme thermal conductivity contrast between the
regolith (0.01 – 0.02 Wm-1K-1) and underlying basaltic rocks (0.5 –
1.0 Wm-1K-1). Outcrops of basalt peeking from beneath the regolith
funnel the heat flow resulting in a decrease of the heat flow in low
conductivity areas and an increase in high conductivity areas,
respectively. The effect is enhanced by the topographic effect in
craters, which become spots of very high heat flow. Two-dimensional
(width 2.5 km, height 1.7 km) and three-dimensional (6 km x 5 km x 1.7
km) finite element models of conductive heat transfer indicate the
commonly accepted value of 16 mWm-2 in the Taurus-Littrow site should be
increased by about 3 mWm-2, i.e. by 19% to obtain an estimate
representative for the valley floor at a depth where the topographic and
refraction effects have attenuated (ca. 1.7 km depth). Our modeling
illustrates the challenges in interpreting point-like lunar heat flow
measurements and potentially contributes to planning of future thermal
studies on the Moon, Mercury and Mars.