Researcher: Leon Croukamp Divison of Transport, Geotech and Management PHD Research: Development of A Lunar Geotechinical Geographic Information System The aim of this research is to create a GIS based system that will map the geotechnical properties or the lunar surface. The motivation for this research came from the new interest shown in lunar exploration, habitation and In situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) by countries such as the USA, Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Several countries have or had satellites orbiting the moon in the very recent past. The primary research question is whether it is possible to predict geotechnical properties based on remotely sensed data. The departure point of the proposed research is to follow the Earth analogy where areas of similar geology, topography and climate typically have the same geotechnical properties. On the basis of this, ‘type areas’ for a certain geotechnical property can be defined, investigated and then extrapolated to other areas.

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