Illumination conditions at the lunar south pole

Recent remote sensing data strongly suggest that deposits of ice occur in p ermanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles. Clementine, by providing th e first contiguous coverage of the Moon, has enabled the production of an i llumination map of the south pole. This map shows the extent of the areas o f permanent darkness during winter in this region as well as identifying pl aces on the lunar surface that receive illumination for more than 50% of th e lunar day: The permanently dark areas are prime candidates for locations of ice deposits while regions that are illuminated for anomalous periods ar e possible sites for lunar bases. In this paper we study in detail the illu mination history during a lunar day of some of these sites. While we find n o area that receives permanent illumination, we do find two areas, only 10 km apart, which collectively receive sunlight for over 98% of the time.