Lunar South Pole topography. The image is coloured by elevation and the scale ranges from an eight-metre rise (beige) to an eight-metre loss (dark blue). There are labels for the 29 craters including the recently named Mons Mouton. This area is of great interest to scientists due to the significant amounts of water ice detected in the permanently shadowed regions that never receive sunlight. The terrain maps are essential for both human and robotic explorers, who are scheduled to arrive at South Pole locations in 2024. Data was obtained by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite.
