Distribution of Lunar Resources

Understanding the origins of craters and "seas" (maria) on the moon is vital to developing the future of the lunar community. The Artemis Project will have to do everything it can to assure its first mission pays off. Among other things, this means locating at a lunar position with the highest mineralogical payoff for our purposes. In order to find the most promising sites, we need to understand the underlying dynamics of lunar mineralogical disposition. We don't want to land just anywhere, or only on the smoothest ground. Location of lunar landing sites is at least as important as any other profit-related decision the Artemis Project will have to make.

Data from Clementine, Lunar Prospector, even the Galileo flyby are helpful for finding the most superficial mineralogical features, and making precise surface maps. Data from these probes and analysis of Apollo-era findings help us determine the history of the moon, the nature of lunar differentiation, and the placement of strategic resources.

To suggest early lunar bombardment was preferentially on the "leading edge" is technically probably correct, but most writers here appear to ignore the high probability that the early moon was not yet tidally-locked to Earth and spun on its axis faster than it does today. There does seem to be a preferential equatorial broad band of basin-forming impacts, with some signs of another band at an angle to the first, indicating the moon may have made a major change in its axis of rotation. This could have implications for the locations of resources.