Duration: 36 months
This PhD project investigates seismic interferometry methods to determine the structure of the first meters of the regolith, as well as the crustal and deep structure of the Moon. The sub-surface seismic properties are particularly interesting for in situ resources because the seismic structure will allows us to estimate the thickness of the fine grained regolith and the seismic velocities are strongly sensitive to the presence of ice. In the framework of Farside Seismic Suite (FSS) deployment in 2025, for which CNES as already delivered to JPL/NASA a broadband sensor from the SEIS spares, and for future deployments of seismic sensors by Astronauts of NASA Artemis missions and/or by Argonaut missions of ESA, we will investigate the capabilities of these data to recover sub-surface structure and deep interior. The objectives of the PhD research project is to define a data processing pipeline correcting artifacts in Moon seismological data, to implement and test seismic interferometry methods for sub-surface and crust structure determination on Apollo and FSS data, as well as on synthetics and Earth's experiments in ESA/DLR LUNA Moon analog facility, and to define science requirements of future short duration geophone sensors deployments on the Moon surface (LASSIE and SIFIR science reserve pool instrumentation). This PhD project is co-funded by CNES.
