New parameters of geometrically best fitting lunar figures

Abstract

The parameters of various lunar figures are of interest to the scientific community working on lunar exploration. In this study, the size of the geometrically best fitting triaxial and rotational ellipsoids, and spheres, are estimated using the method of condition equations with common unknown parameters from the coordinates of 271,610 control points of the newly available lunar control, ULCN 2005. In the first set of solutions, the origin of the figures is calculated with respect to the center of the mass of the Moon. Their origins are set to coincide with the lunar center of mass in the second set of solutions. The new estimates are the most up-to-date values for the triaxial and rotational ellipsoidal and spherical parameters of the lunar figures and are significantly different up to half a km as compared to the most recent solutions.