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.
Apollo 11 lunar module, "Eagle". Image width: 282 meters (about 925 ft.)
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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.
To view the new images, visit: Apollo Landing Sites Images
"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.
For more information about LRO's cameras and to view the first Apollo
landing site images, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/LRO
For additional information on LROC, visit: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu
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