Lunar topography

So I want to terraform the moon.

As one of the major steps is to deposit a very large number of cubic
kilometres of water on it to act as a thermal buffer, I would like to
calculate where the coastlines are going to be so I know where to put my
house.

NASA have a nice set of topographical data from the Clementine mission
that I can download:

ftp://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/luna...v1/cl_xxxx/ima
ges/

However, the baseline for this data is a theoretical spheroid based on
the lunar surface. The moon's gravity is so irregular that the shape of
the water won't match the shape of the spheroid. Right now my model is
going to have all the water on Farside and Nearside as being a huge
mountain.

Clementine provides quite a lot of abstract gravitational data
describing the shape of the moon's gravitational field. Unfortunately I
don't have the background or the knowledge to do anything with this
information.

What I'd really like is a set of lunar topographic information
normalised to some theoretical gravitational isosurface. That would let
me very easily pour water onto my model and look at coastlines. Does
anyone know if such a thing exists, and where I can get it? Failing
that, can anyone suggest how I might be able to turn Clementine's
gravitational data into something I can use?

--
┌─── ï½„ï½‡ï¼ ï½ƒ
ï½�ｗｌï½�ｒｋ．ｃï
½�ï½� ───── http://www.
cowlark.com ─────
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│ "Under communism, man exploits man. Under capitalism, it's just
the
│ opposite." --- John Kenneth Galbrith

Originally Posted by David Given

So I want to terraform the moon.

As one of the major steps is to deposit a very large number of cubic
kilometres of water on it to act as a thermal buffer, I would like to
calculate where the coastlines are going to be so I know where to put my
house.

NASA have a nice set of topographical data from the Clementine mission
that I can download:

ftp://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/luna...v1/cl_xxxx/ima
ges/

However, the baseline for this data is a theoretical spheroid based on
the lunar surface. The moon's gravity is so irregular that the shape of
the water won't match the shape of the spheroid. Right now my model is
going to have all the water on Farside and Nearside as being a huge
mountain.

Clementine provides quite a lot of abstract gravitational data
describing the shape of the moon's gravitational field. Unfortunately I
don't have the background or the knowledge to do anything with this
information.

What I'd really like is a set of lunar topographic information
normalised to some theoretical gravitational isosurface. That would let
me very easily pour water onto my model and look at coastlines. Does
anyone know if such a thing exists, and where I can get it? Failing
that, can anyone suggest how I might be able to turn Clementine's
gravitational data into something I can use?

--
┌─── ï½„ï½‡ï¼ ï½ƒ
ï½�ｗｌï½�ｒｋ．ｃï
½�ï½� ───── http://www.
cowlark.com ─────
│
│ "Under communism, man exploits man. Under capitalism, it's just
the
│ opposite." --- John Kenneth Galbrith

I'll guess that a million cubic kilometers will make lots of lakes, and only one medium size ocean, so you can build your house on any high location and move later to get lakefront property. Part of the problem is much of the water will sink into the soil, perhaps hundreds of kilometers below the surface. The moon interior may be only 100 c at a depth of 100 kilometers, but the pressure is likely high enough that water boils at 200 c or more at a depth of 100 kilometers. Perhaps the moon already has lots of water at a depth of 100 kilometers. Could we tell? Adding a million cubic kilometers of water will change the topography and gravity anomolies considerably, unless you drop the water on the moon gently. Neil