Laser altimeters are capable of achieving fine mapping of the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon, which can provide fundamental topographic data for planetary missions. However, various factors can cause uncertainty in the geolocation of laser spots, which in turn causes terrain artifacts. In this article, we present an iterative self-constrained adjustment method to reduce the uncertainty of laser spot positioning. First, grid search was conducted for each altimetric profile from the lunar orbiter laser altimeter (LOLA), to minimize the weighted root-mean-square error (RMSE), constrained by the other altimetric profiles. Second, the updated profiles were iteratively adjusted until the adjustment value for the plane position converged. In addition, statistics from the standardized de-trended slope and residual were created to eliminate outliers, which were indeed some pseudo-topographic observations. In order to validate the results, the deviation of the elevation by projecting the adjusted laser profiles onto the improved LOLA digital elevation model (DEM) were calculated. The mean absolute error between the two is 0.25 m and the RMSE is 0.46 m. For the local terrain features with large differences, high resolution optical images were used for visual interpretation. The analysis shows that the obtained results appear to be more reasonable. Finally, using the corrected LOLA altimetric data, we made a new DEM of the PSRs within 89 & DEG;S of the lunar south pole, which can provide a refined and reliable topographic dataset for follow-up research.
Next Indian Lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 is expected to be launched in 2017/18 with a Lunar Orbiter Lander and Rover. Basically, the requirement of the Lander includes communication, Landing area shape, topography and sunlit area. For analyzing the landing site of chandryaan-2 we are using the data of LOLA which is one of the payloads onboard Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) is an instrument designed to assist in the selection of landing sites on the Moon for future robotic and human exploration. ICRS has analyzed total ten craters; three of them are located in the North Pole while remaining seven craters are located in the South Pole of the Moon. Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) on the south pole of the lunar surface is of special interest to researchers due the presence of trapped water ice into these PSRs.