Research/ ISRU & CONSTRUCTION
The Silfela Mission to the Aristarchus Plateau, Moon
L. S. Sollitt, R. C. Anderson, R. A. Beyer, D. Buczkowski, K. B. Chin, A. Colaprete, S. Dibb, J. M. Dohm, R. C. Elphic, E. Fritzler, I. R. King, D. S. S. Lim, J.M. Long-Fox, Z. Mirmalek, D. Y. Wyrick, R. A. Yingst, K. Zacny
NTRSLunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
Silfela is a low-cost lunar PRISM mission concept designed to study the regolith proper-ties of the Aristarchus Plateau on the Moon (Fig. 1). The mission will make use of the PRISM mobility capability (rover) to assess regoliths in different geo-logical units. The instrument suite consists of the SPARTA regolith sampling toolkit, the NIRVSS imager/spectrometer, the NSS neutron spectrometer [4], context cameras, and a high-resolution hand-lens imager. “Silfela” is a word from the fictional Qenya language which means “small lunar excavation.”