Chronology of the Basalt Units Surrounding Chang’e-4 Landing Area

The Chang’e-4 (CE-4) lunar probe, the first soft landing spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, successfully landed in the Von Kármán crater on 3 January 2019. Geological studies of the landing area have been conducted and more intensive studies will be carried out with the in situ measured data. The chronological study of the maria basalt surrounding the CE-4 landing area is significant to the related studies. Currently, the crater size-frequency distribution (CSFD) technique is the most popular method to derive absolute model ages (AMAs) of geological units where no returned sample is available, and it has been widely used in dating maria basalt on the lunar surface. In this research, we first make a mosaic with multi-orbital Chang’e-2 (CE-2) images as a base map. Coupled with the elevation data and FeO content, nine representative areas of basalt units surrounding the CE-4 landing area are outlined and their AMAs are derived. The dating results of the nine basalt units indicate that the basalts erupted from 3.42 to 2.28 Ga ago in this area, a period much longer than derived by previous studies. The derived chronology of the above basalt units establishes a foundation for geological analysis of the returned CE-4 data.

Analysis of hypervelocity impacts: The tungsten case

The atomistic mechanisms of damage initiation during high velocity (v up to 9 km/s, kinetic energies up to 200 keV) impacts of W projectiles on a W surface have been investigated using parallel molecular-dynamics simulations involving large samples (up to 40 million atoms). Various aspects of the impact at high velocities, where the projectile and part of the target materials undergo massive plastic deformation, breakup, melting, and vaporization, are analyzed. Different stages of the penetration process have been identified through a detailed examination of implantation, crater size and volume, sputtered atoms, and dislocations created by the impacts. The crater volume increases linearly with the kinetic energy for a given impactor; and the total dislocation length increases with the kinetic energy but depends itself on the size of the impactor. Furthermore, the total dislocation length is less dependent of the fine details of the interatomic potential. The results are rationalized based on the physical properties of bcc W.

New Evidence to Support Zephyria Tholus as a Composite Volcano on Mars

Zephyria Tholus has been proposed to be a composite volcano, however, detailed geomorphological study was not carried out due to limited high-resolution remote sensing data. Here we use MOLA, THEMIS, CTX and HiRISE data to conduct topographical and geomorphological analysis of Zephyria Tholus. We identify extensive valleys and troughs on the flank, which are sector collapse or glacio-fluvial in origin. The valleys and troughs indicate coexistence of different erosion resistance materials, along with the observed solid lava outcrops. There are also layered materials identified on the wall of the largest valley. In addition, perched craters are identified on the top depression and flanks of Zephyria Tholus, indicating the presence of ice-rich layer. We conducted crater size-frequency distribution of the caldera and found the absolute model age is 3.74 (+0.03, −0.04) Ga. The geomorphology evidence and chronology result support the composite volcano nature of Zephyria Tholus, and indicate the magma volatile content in the Aeolis region in Noachian is more than 0.15 wt% if the atmosphere paleo-pressure was similar to present Mars.

Maria Basalts Chronology of the Chang’E-5 Sampling Site

Chang’E-5 is the first lunar sample return mission of China. The spacecraft was landed in the northwest of the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (43.0576°N, 308.0839°E) on 1 December 2020 and returned 1731 g samples from a previously unvisited region. The landing area has been proposed as one of the youngest mare basalt units of the Moon and holds important information of lunar thermal evolution and chronology. However, the absolute model ages estimated in previous studies are quite different, ranging from 2.07 Ga to 1.21 Ga. Such significant difference may be caused by (1) different crater counting areas, (2) different crater diameter ranges, (3) effects of secondary craters, and (4) biases in crater identification. Moreover, the accurate landing site was unknown and the ages were estimated over the Eratosthenian-aged mare unit (Em4) instead. In light of the above unsatisfactory conditions, this study seeks to establish a standard crater size-frequency distribution of the CE-5 landing site. We derived the concentrations of FeO and TiO2 to map out the pure basaltic areas where external ejecta deposits are negligible and thus secondary craters are rare. Based on the geochemistry of basaltic ejecta excavated by fresh craters in the mare unit, the FeO concentration threshold for mapping pure basaltic areas is 17.2 wt.%. The morphologically flat subunits in the pure basaltic areas were selected for crater identification and age dating to exclude the contamination of external ejecta to the best as we could. In the Chang’E-5 sampling site subunit, we detected 313 craters with a diameter greater than 100 m and derived the absolute model age as 1.49−0.084+0.084 Ga. The craters identified in all pure basaltic subunits of Em4 gave the model age of 1.41−0.028+0.027 Ga. As least affected by secondary craters, the crater size-frequency distribution of the sample-collected pure basaltic subunit can provide important constraints for lunar cratering chronology function in combination with isotopic age of returned samples.

A Geometric Prediction Model of Surface Morphology in Micro-EDM Considering Stochastic Characteristics of Discharge Crater Size

The surface topography of micro-EDM is closely related to its application range, so it is important to accurately predict the surface morphology. Most of the existing models do not consider the stochastic characteristics and uncertainty of the discharge process, which could produce great differences with the experimental results. Aiming at these problems, the stochastic characteristic of the discharge crater size is studied, and a simulation model is established to predict the surface topography of EDM considering the stochastic characteristics of crater size. Firstly, the stochastic characteristics of the crater size were investigated through the finite-successive pulses discharge method and characterized from the perspective of probability theory. The stochastic characteristics was explained by analyzing discharge waveforms. Secondly, the response surface method (RSM) was used to map the corresponding relationship between the input machining parameters and the distribution characteristics of crater size. It was observed that the RSM model can accurately predict the distribution characteristics of crater size in the range of parameters selected in this study. Finally, models based on stochastic distribution of crater size (MSDS) and fixed crater size (MFS) were established respectively. By analyzing the characteristics of the simulated surfaces and the machined surface, it was found that the surface features of MSDS are closer to the real surface features. Compared with MFS, the roughness prediction error and the average of overall error of MSDS are reduced by 1.01% and 18.97% respectively. The results of this work are helpful to understand the randomness and realize the controllability of EDM.

Self-Secondaries Formed by Cold Spot Craters on the Moon

Self-secondaries are a population of background secondaries, and they have been observed on top of impact melt and ballistically emplaced ejecta deposits on various planetary bodies. Self-secondaries are formed by impacts of sub-vertically launched ejecta, but the launch mechanism is not confirmed. The potential threat of self-secondaries to the theoretical and applicable reliability of crater chronology has been noted, but not constrained. Hitherto discovered self-secondaries were located around complex impact craters, but their potential existence around simple craters has not been discovered. Here we report the first discovery of self-secondaries around lunar cold spot craters, which are an extremely young population of simple craters formed within the past ~1 million years on the Moon. Self-secondaries are widespread on layers of cascading flow-like ejecta deposits around cold spot craters. The spatial density of self-secondaries dwarfs that of potential primary craters. The spatial distribution of self-secondaries is highly heterogeneous across the ejecta deposits. With respect to the impactor trajectory that formed cold spot craters, self-secondaries formed at the downrange of the ejecta deposits have the largest spatial density, while those at the uprange have the smallest density. This density pattern holds for all cold spot craters that were formed by non-vertical impacts, but self-secondaries do not exhibit other systematic density variations at different radial distances or at other azimuths with respect to the impactor trajectory. Among known mechanics of ejecting materials to the exterior of impact craters, impact spallation is the most likely scenario to account for the required large ejection velocities and angles to form self-secondaries. The production population of self-secondaries is estimated based on the highly diverse crater size-frequency distributions across the ejecta deposits of cold spot craters. For a better understanding of the impact history on the Moon, a systematic investigation for the effect of self-secondaries on lunar crater chronology is required.

Research on Material Removal Mechanism of Micro-EDM in Deionized Water

As one of the most promising processing methods, the microelectrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) process is widely used in industrial production; however, the material removal mechanism of micro-EDM in deionized water has not been clarified due to scale effect. In this paper, the influence of discharge parameters on the discharge crater size was studied by means of a single-pulse discharge experiment using a resistor–capacitor circuit (RC circuit). The variation trend of the discharge crater size with open-circuit voltage and capacitance was discussed based on the experimental results. The results show that the diameter and depth of the discharge crater increases with capacitance and open-circuit voltage due to the increasing discharge duration and the energy density of the discharge plasma. The discharge energy increases with the increase of capacitance and open-circuit voltage, which causes more materials to melt and vaporize, leading to the crater volume becoming larger. This study has reference value for the further application of micro-EDM adopting deionized water as a dielectric.