Lunar gravimetry: revealing the far-side

Lunar Gravimetry: Revealing the Far-Side provides a thorough and detailed discussion of lunar gravity field research and applications, from the initial efforts of the pre-Apollo and Luna eras to the dedicated gravity mapping experiments of the third millennium.Analysis of the spatial variations of the gravity field of the Moon is a key selenodetic element in the understanding of the physics of the Moon's interior.

Remarkably, more than forty years after the initial steps in lunar exploration by spacecraft, the global gravity field still remains largely unknown, due to the limitations of standard observations techniques.

As such, knowledge of the high-accuracy and high-resolution gravity field is one of the remaining unsolved issues in lunar science.Lunar Gravimetry: Revealing the Far-Side addresses all users over lunar gravity information and covers a wide range of topics, including the scientific rationale for and history of gravimetric research; the fundamental ill-conditioning of the gravimetric problem; the prospects of sophisticated observation techniques, such as inter-satellite tracking and gravity gradient gradiometry; the role of regularisation schemes; and the crucial aspect of quality assessment of gravity field solutions.

Also described are the first-ever efforts to model the gravity field of the Moon using European satellite tracking data sets.