NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos of Apollo LEMs & astronaut trails

Dennis · #1 18-07-2009, 08:24 AM

Not too sure if this has been posted here already, but NASA's LRO has picked up the bottom stages of the LEMs from several of the Apollo landing sites, as well as the trail of footprints of the Apollo 14 astronauts between the LEM and the experimental packages.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LR...ollosites.html

Cheers

Dennis

sheeny (Al) · #2 18-07-2009, 09:01 AM

WOW. Thanks for posting Dennis!

Al.

kinetic (Steve) · #3 18-07-2009, 09:09 AM

Simply awesome....

Steve

DavidU (Dave) · #4 18-07-2009, 10:02 AM

Fake !
Just kidding, see what all the doubters say now.

iceman (Mike) · #5 18-07-2009, 10:08 AM

WOW! I didn't know it would return those type of pictures so soon!

Absolutely amazing!

iceman (Mike) · #6 18-07-2009, 10:21 AM

Some more commentary here by Phil Plaitt, the Bad Astonomer.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...imaged-by-lro/

Matty P (Matt) · #7 18-07-2009, 12:51 PM

That's awesome! Thanks for posting Dennis.

Tony Leece · #8 18-07-2009, 12:54 PM

Just recieved this link.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned its first imagery of Apollo landing sites.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...htm?list987402

gary · #9 18-07-2009, 01:02 PM

What's even more remarkable is that if you enhance the images further,
apparently someone has come along and stripped the tyres off all three
Lunar Rovers.

tonybarry (Tony) · #10 18-07-2009, 01:16 PM

Thanks Tony for the link. Very good to see it wasn't a hoax after all ... :-)

Regards,
Tony Barry

StephenM (Stephen) · #11 18-07-2009, 01:42 PM

Amazing images indeed!

I was watching "In the shadow of the Moon" again last night, and then today here are the images!

Spanrz (Brett) · #12 18-07-2009, 07:13 PM

Ahhhh "Google Moon" at it's greatest!

Been waiting for this day for a long time.
Almost as good as the landing. Even though I wasn't born yet.

renormalised (Carl) · #13 19-07-2009, 11:44 AM

Excellent resolution on the cameras, there. Looking forward to more great piccies.

astroron (Ron) · #14 19-07-2009, 04:28 PM

Great images,thanks for the post

I look forward to the higher resolution images

merlin8r · #15 20-07-2009, 01:53 PM

Fire up your conspirocies! NASA's LRO satellite has imaged the landing sites of Apollo 11, 14, 15, 16 and 17. These shots were taken from a higher orbit than it's future operational altitude, so NASA expects future resolutions 3 times better than these.

seanliddelow (Sean) · #16 20-07-2009, 01:55 PM

I think this finally proves that they went to the moon, which i always believed.

mental4astro (Alexander) · #17 20-07-2009, 02:11 PM

I agee that they went. Way too difficult then & now to try to dupe the boys & girls at Tidbinbilla. Though the photos that were 'taken' by Apollo 11, well, I'm not sure the cameras they had were upto the task. Alot riding on this & they needed pics. They did get their act together for later missions & used gear that could handle the conditions.

Tick, tick, tick...

Dennis · #18 20-07-2009, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Though the photos that were 'taken' by Apollo 11, well, I'm not sure the cameras they had were upto the task. Alot riding on this & they needed pics. They did get their act together for later missions & used gear that could handle the conditions.

If you are referring to the still cameras, I think that the cameras the astronauts used were modified Hassleblads, the Rolls Royce of cameras back in those days. Not sure what film stock they used though?

Cheers

Dennis

mental4astro (Alexander) · #19 20-07-2009, 03:00 PM

I had heard that the cameras were Hassleblads too. I do remember hearing about 'fears' that the cameras may not be able to protect the film, so the idea was to have these photos as a stand-by. Mind-you, they were taking photos since the Geminii project, so the fears were based on what? Penny pinching in the weight stakes to return the astronauts home may have ment turfing heavier, well protected cameras. The astronauts weighed the moon rocks before lifting off the moons surface to make sure that the new gross weight of the LM fell within limits. Rocks over photos?

The reason I say this is that I have always been bugged by the fading light in the background in these photos, which shouldn't be, & it is uniform in the subsequent missions.

GrahamL · #20 20-07-2009, 05:11 PM

They replayed that shot of Buzz Aldrin dealing with that whacko conspiricy nut this morning, while I 'd seen it before I'd never heard the audio, it sure didn't sound like he missed him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU