Landing Site Analysis

This work is of interest for organizations who want to land on the Moon.

Published research

Menges, JD, and K. M. Cannon (2026). Natural Landing Pads on the Moon and Mars. Acta Astronautica, 242, 219–235.

Cannon, K. M. (2023). A Lunar Soil Classification System for Space Resource Utilization. Planetary and Space Science, 237, 105780

Cannon, K. M., and D. T. Britt (2020). Accessibility Dataset for Large Permanent Cold Traps at the Lunar Poles. Earth and Space Science, 7, e2020EA001291

Cannon, K. M., and D. T. Britt (2020). A Geologic Model for Lunar Ice Deposits at Mining Scales. Icarus, 347, 113778

Capabilities

Terrain reconstruction and enhancement

Sub-resolution terrain synthesis: we extend existing DEMs down to lander- and rover-relevant scales using band-limited spectral synthesis calibrated to published roughness statistics, resulting in the right power spectrum, RMS slope, and Hurst exponent for the terrain type.

Physically-grounded landscape evolution: crater emplacement and topographic diffusion; synthetic terrain has a real crater-size-frequency distribution.

Crater and rock abundance layers composited into probabilistic landing-safety products.

Illumination and thermal environment

Time-resolved solar illumination over real topography (driven by SPICE ephemerides): illumination fraction, longest continuous darkness, and Earth-visibility windows for comms.

Regolith thermal modeling with two-layer temperature-dependent conductivity. Relevant to survive-the-night margin, ice stability, and radiator siting.

Adapting it to your work

Get in touch and we will scope something that fits.