Despite political uncertainty, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter‘s mapping of the moon continues to take the most detailed images ever of potential landing sites.

One of the things taken into consideration when choosing a spot for human or robotic exploration on the moon, is the ability to access the areas with as much diverse geology available locally possible. 

The Prinz area shown in the image here is a great example of that. The riles and massifs along with the surrounding craters are a diverse collection of different types of lunar topography. 

The rilles across the image are traces of lava flow, creating the mare on the surface. Embedded within is layers of lunar bedrock. This provides us with how lava shaped the surface long ago. 

Massifs contain deposits of volcanic eruptions on the moon’s surface. These deposits which are pyroclastic, could be used as resources for future crews. 

The advantages of these regions are made obvious when we see the diverse range of geology we can cover in just one mission. As LRO continues mapping the moon in the highest quality detail we ever seen, we shall continue to find areas which could serve us in the future.

The third and final EVA of Apollo 15 brought the astronauts to the edge of Hadley Rille (lower left). Disturbed regolith is observed along the crater rim at station 9 and at the edge of the rille at station 9A.

LROC WAC mosaic of the rille-rich Prinz crater region. Bench-like features are visible in the Prinz B depression and two flows originating in Prinz B converge just west of the arrow [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].