NASA says moon south pole more rugged than thought

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The moon's south pole region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than had been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters, NASA said on Wednesday.

Using an Earth-based radar system in California's Mojave Desert, the U.S. space agency collected the most accurate, highest-resolution terrain mapping data to date on the moon's south pole.

NASA looked at an area around Shackleton Crater, with some terrain in perpetual darkness and other areas almost always sunlit. Scientists previously have gotten images of the area, but never in such detail, NASA said.

The Shackleton Crater rim area is a landing site candidate for a future crewed mission to the moon, NASA said. There have been previous indications water ice might exist in darkened areas of the crater, although that remains controversial.

The region has a peak towering 3.8 miles -- rivaling North America's tallest mountain, Mount McKinley in Alaska -- and craters 2.5 miles deep, NASA said. The scientists noted that the largest volcano on Earth -- Mauna Loa in Hawaii -- would fit easily inside these depths.

"It continues to be an area of high interest for future human landings. And this type of information is critical for us in understanding what we're getting into if we choose to land here," said Doug Cooke of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

Asked if the rugged terrain might give NASA pause, Cooke told reporters, "I don't think it's less attractive."

"It really calls on us to rise to the challenge of getting there, rather than having engineering constraints limit us," added NASA lunar program scientist Kelly Snook.