UCLA

Surface roughness at different scales is a window into the types, timescales, and frequency of modification of a rocky planet’s surface. From centimeter to kilometer scale, topographic roughness has an effect on almost all data we collect at planetary bodies due to the scattering, absorption, and reflection of electromagnetic waves. Understanding the nature of surface roughness at these scales allows for accurate data correction and gives insight into the modification history of the planetary surface. On the Moon and Mars key drivers of surface roughness include volcanism, tectonic deformation, and impact cratering. These can all cause fracturing, another way to increase surface roughness.Our understanding of surface processes on the Moon and Mars has evolved significantly over the past decade, spurred on by the increasing cadence of planetary exploration instruments. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is an example of one such groundbreaking mission, amassing the largest dataset of any NASA planetary science mission. LRO launched in 2009 and has since revolutionized our understanding of Earth’s closest neighbor. The six instruments onboard cover a large swath of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this thesis I focus on data collected by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment.Orbital missions comprise the majority of NASA’s planetary science fleet, however landed missions are effective at ground-truthing orbital observations, for example, the Mars2020 mission with the Perseverance rover. Since the rover is surface based, it can only analyze a small snapshot of the Martian environment. Therefore, Earth-based studies in planetary analog environments become extremely useful to test hypotheses that we are unable to test with the instruments on Mars. Planetary analogs can have similar geology, environmental conditions or even chemistry to regions on other planets. In this thesis I compare ground penetrating radar data from one such Martian analog with data from the ground penetrating radar onboard the Perseverance rover, RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment), to investigate surface fractures that look morphologically similar in both environments.We are entering a new era of space exploration with the Artemis missions; the first crewed missions to the surface of the Moon in 50 years, planned for 2028 onwards. For the first time we plan to land humans at the lunar south polar region, an area with illumination and thermal extremes. Due to the Moon’s low obliquity, the Sun is always low in the sky here, creating a complex and challenging landscape to navigate. The third chapter uses the model from Chapter 1 to create a traverse planning tool and investigates how we can simulate the lunar south pole on Earth to better prepare for surface operations.The first chapter has been published; the second chapter is currently being prepared for publication, the third chapter was published as two conference abstracts.