Magnetic Anomalies

The Moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined between 6.5 and 6.9 deg relative to the lunar equator from LOI through 2013. Thus, an orbit in the Moon's orbit plane can only fly over crustal magnetic anomalies up to 6.9 deg from the equator. Further, consideration of the bi-monthly oscillation in periapsis altitude reveals that the lowest periselene altitudes will occur only near 90 and 270 deg longitude for P1 (retrograde), and only near 0 and 180 deg longitude for P2 (prograde). ARTEMIS can only measure anomalies near these longitudes because the spacecraft must be at <50 km for good measurements and the altitude oscillation magnitude is roughly 1000 km. The table below lists potential magnetic anomaly targets for ARTEMIS.