Papers by Michael Zanetti
Frontiers in Aerospace Engineering, 2013
The Polar Exploration and Lunar Studies (PEARLS) program is a collection of technologies and stra... more The Polar Exploration and Lunar Studies (PEARLS) program is a collection of technologies and strategies aimed at putting humans back on the Moon. The primary focus of PEARLS is to reconnoiter the southern polar region to determine suitable locations for future permanent habitats. Justification of potential landing sites is presented based on the probability of volatiles sequestered in permanently shadowed regions. A technology plan detailing the logistics of transporting people and equipment to the lunar surface as well as executing multiple sorties with specific intent is also included. Finally, a proposed budget and timeline with significant milestones is outlined that takes into consideration current technology researched, reasonable investment of resources over time, and optimum Moon/Earth configurations for best mission results. As part of the PEARLS program, the team participated in the international Yuri's Night celebration featuring a guest speaker from the Red Bull Stratos program as well as several activities aimed at educating the public about the Moon, the challenges and benefits of returning to the Moon, and the physics of rocketry.
Large blocks of Aristarchus Crater ejecta show alternating layers of bright and dark material. Th... more Large blocks of Aristarchus Crater ejecta show alternating layers of bright and dark material. The blocks are only observed on the mare side of the impact crater and are interpreted to be flood basalt sequences.
Terrestrial debris flows and their deposits are mainly studied and monitored because of their haz... more Terrestrial debris flows and their deposits are mainly studied and monitored because of their hazardous nature. On Mars they may serve as geomorphologic indicators of transient liquid water. We compared the morphology of debris flow-like deposits within a young ($0.2 Ma) mid-latitude crater on Mars with debris flow fans on Svalbard as possible terrestrial analogues. It was our objective to constrain whether dry granular flow or processes related to water-saturation at or close to the surface were responsible for the formation of the deposits within the crater. We found that the morphological attributes of the deposits on Mars are very similar to debris flows in Svalbard and include overlapping terminal lobes, debris tongues and snouts, debris-flow fans, scoured channels with medial deposits (debris plugs), and clearly defined lateral deposits (levées). Furthermore, the interior crater walls display a range of landforms indicating aspect-dependent degradation, ranging from debris flow-dominated pole-facing slopes, to east-andwest-facing single channel gullies and north-facing talus cones (granular flow). Our findings suggest that the debris flows are not related to impact-induced heating and release of meltwater. We further suggest that degradation of a latitude dependent dust-ice mantling unit may only have played a minor role in this youthful terrain. Instead, we propose that the debris flows are mainly formed by melting of very recent snow deposits after the termination of the last martian ice-age. As such they may represent some of the most recent geomorphological indicators of transient liquid water in the martian mid-latitudes. The distinct north-south asymmetry in degradation further demonstrates that insolation-controlled slope processes are surprisingly efficient on Mars during the last <1 Myr.
Epic3european Conference on Permafrost June 13 17 Longyearbyen Svalbard Norway, 2010
... in different settings. 3 FIRST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Stone circles, nets, and labyrinths wer... more ... in different settings. 3 FIRST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Stone circles, nets, and labyrinths were observed on Kvadehuksletta inside of comparably moist and shallow depressions dammed by beach ridges. Di-ameters are ...
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We compare the morphology of terrestrial debris flow analogs from Svalbard with pristine debris f... more We compare the morphology of terrestrial debris flow analogs from Svalbard with pristine debris flows in an unusual crater environment on Mars and investigate the model of sieve-deposition for their formation.
Geological Society London Special Publications
Periglacial landforms on Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Norway) are morphologically similar to landforms ... more Periglacial landforms on Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Norway) are morphologically similar to landforms on Mars that are probably related to the past and/or present existence of ice at or near the surface. Many of these landforms, such as gullies, debris-flow fans, polygonal terrain, fractured mounds and rock-glacier-like features, are observed in close spatial proximity in mid-latitude craters on Mars. On Svalbard, analogous landforms occur in strikingly similar proximity, which makes them useful study cases to infer the spatial and chronological evolution of Martian coldclimate surface processes. The analysis of the morphological inventory of analogous landforms on Svalbard and Mars allows the processes operating on Mars to be constrained. Different qualitative scenarios of landscape evolution on Mars help to better understand the action of periglacial processes on Mars in the recent past.
We use solifluction lobes in Svalbard as anologs to high-latitude lobate landforms on Mars. We in... more We use solifluction lobes in Svalbard as anologs to high-latitude lobate landforms on Mars. We investigate a freeze-and-thaw origin and aim to constrain formation processes.
We present landforms on Svalbard (Norway) as terrestrial analogs for possible Martian periglacial... more We present landforms on Svalbard (Norway) as terrestrial analogs for possible Martian periglacial surface features. While there are closer climatic analogs for Mars, e.g., the Antarctic Dry Valleys, Svalbard has unique advantages that make it a very useful study area. Svalbard is easily accessible and offers a periglacial landscape where many different landforms can be encountered in close spatial proximity. These landforms include thermal contraction cracks, slope stripes, rock glaciers, protalus ramparts, and pingos, all of which have close morphological analogs on Mars. The combination of remotesensing data, in particular images and digital elevation models, with fi eld work is a promising approach in analog studies and facilitates acquisition of fi rst-hand experience with permafrost environments. Based on the morphological ambiguity of certain landforms such as pingos, we recommend that Martian cold-climate landforms should not be investigated in isolation, but as part of a landscape system in a geological context.
Debris flows are moving masses of loose debris of varying grain sizes, water and air that travels... more Debris flows are moving masses of loose debris of varying grain sizes, water and air that travels down a slope under the influence of gravity. Terrestrial debris flows are mainly studied and monitored because of their hazardous nature. On Mars they may serve as important geomorphologic indicators of transient liquid water. The discovery of well-developed debris flow deposits within a very young southern mid-latitude crater (~0.2 Ma) highlights the impact of periglacial slope processes during recent climate conditions on Mars. We compared the morphology of debris flows on Svalbard as possible analogues to the observed deposits on Mars in order to infer possible formation mechanisms. Within our study crater on Mars, high-resolution imagery obtained by the HiRISE instrument (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) revealed typical debris-flow attributes such as overlapping terminal lobes, debris tongues, debris-flow fans, scoured channels with medial deposits (debris plugs), and we...
The mid-and high-latitudes of Mars are covered by a smooth young mantle that is interpreted as an... more The mid-and high-latitudes of Mars are covered by a smooth young mantle that is interpreted as an atmospherically derived air-fall deposit of ice and dust related to recent climate changes. In order to determine relative and absolute ages of this surface unit within the southern hemisphere, a systematic survey of all available HiRISE and CTX images in the Malea Planum region from 55-601S latitude and 50-701E longitude was performed and the distribution and the morphology of small impact craters on the mantle deposit were investigated. Using crater size-frequency measurements, we derived absolute model ages of $ 3-5 Ma for the surface of the mantle, immediately south of the Hellas basin rim. Morphologic observations of the mantle, its fresh appearance, very low number of craters, and superposition on older units support this very young Amazonian age. Nearly all observed craters on the smooth mantle in Malea Planum are small and show signs of erosion, evidence for the ongoing modification of the ice-dust mantle. However, this modification has not been strong enough to reset the surface age. Compared to the ice-dust mantle at higher latitudes in the northern and southern hemisphere, the surface of the mantle in Malea Planum is older and thus has been relatively stable during obliquity changes in the last $ 3-5 Ma. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the ice-dust mantle is a complex surface deposit of different layers, that shows a strong latitude dependence in morphology and has been deposited and degraded at different times in martian history.
... in different settings. 3 FIRST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Stone circles, nets, and labyrinths wer... more ... in different settings. 3 FIRST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Stone circles, nets, and labyrinths were observed on Kvadehuksletta inside of comparably moist and shallow depressions dammed by beach ridges. Di-ameters are ...
Icarus, 2014
Page 5 likely to yield the most reliable results. provide a more recent comparison with three res... more Page 5 likely to yield the most reliable results. provide a more recent comparison with three researchers (two expert, one novice without crater counting experience) from the same lab who used the same technique to identify, measure, and, in this case, classify craters by preservation state. They used Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Wide-Angle Camera (LROC WAC) images of Mare Orientale. The two experienced analysts had counts that differed by 20-40% in a given diameter range, while the novice counter identified numerous features that are probably not craters, differing from the other two by >100% over some diameter ranges. They also had significant variation among the preservation states attributed to each crater, despite a relatively coarse fourpoint scale. This work showed that despite common thinking that crater counting is fairly easy and straightforward, there is a learning curve and an individual's crater counts should be discarded during the learning process. It also showed that even well defined crater morphologies may be difficult to classify uniformly. Hiesinger et al. (2012) also focused on lunar craters, in their case using LROC Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) images at approximately 0.5 m/px. They were interested in reproducible results for better understanding the lunar cratering flux and performed a single test with two experienced researchers who used the same technique on the same image. The Heisinger et al.
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Papers by Michael Zanetti