Lunar Based Earth Observation and Its Potential Applications

Along with the progress of the national lunar exploration program of China, in particular of the manned lunar landing mission development, to design and construction a lunar research base will eventually become next step of China’s national program. In order to fully explore the utilization of this lunar research base, the characteristics of the lunar based Earth observation from its unique orbit are analyzed. From those characteristics, potential applications in Earth system science and sustainable developments, space physics and space environment monitoring are identified. Those research and application demands would be useful for the design and plan of the future lunar base both for manned and robotic-only. At the same time, it would also be new inputs for Earth system studies.