NASA submits pictures as proof on the Anniversary of Apollo
11
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the
Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo
missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's
surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the
modules' locations evident.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo
sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be
photographed in the coming weeks.
The satellite reached lunar
orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11
and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able
to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first
images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping
orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to
three times greater resolution.
"The LROC team anxiously awaited
each image," said LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson
of Arizona State University. "We were very interested in
getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages
just for the thrill -- and to see how well the cameras had
come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is
the focus."
Although these pictures provide a
reminder of past NASA exploration, LRO's primary focus is on
paving the way for the future. By returning detailed lunar
data, the mission will help NASA identify safe landing sites
for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe
the moon's radiation environment and demonstrate new
technologies.
"Not only do these images reveal the
great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that
lunar exploration continues," said LRO project scientist
Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. "They demonstrate how LRO will be used to
identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the
moon."
The
spacecraft's current elliptical orbit resulted in image
resolutions that were slightly different for each site but
were all around four feet per pixel. Because the deck of the
descent stage is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo
relics themselves fill an area of about nine pixels.
However, because the sun was low to the horizon when the
images were made, even subtle variations in topography
create long shadows. Standing slightly more than ten feet
above the surface, each Apollo descent stage creates a
distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.
The image of the Apollo 14
landing site had a particularly desirable lighting condition
that allowed visibility of additional details. The Apollo
Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific
instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site, is
discernable, as are the faint trails between the module and
instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints.
Launched on June 18, LRO carries seven scientific
instruments, all of which are currently undergoing
calibration and testing prior to the spacecraft reaching its
primary mission orbit. The LROC instrument comprises three
cameras -- two high-resolution Narrow Angle Cameras and one
lower resolution Wide Angle Camera. LRO will be directed
into its primary mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular
orbit about 31 miles above the lunar surface.
Goddard
built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international
participation from the Institute for Space Research in
Moscow. Russia provided the neutron detector aboard the
spacecraft.
