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NASA Fly Me To The Moon

The landing: I believed it then; I do not believe it now.
Ted
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.
Check out the photos
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html
 
No problems Bill. Maybe you found pic on the site here.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
I see the last photo on the Nasa site is a stereoscopic one of Eagle coming back to the Command Module. Unfortunately you need red and blue glasses to see it. We also must not forget the Command Module pilot Michael Collins. In my opinion he wrote the best book about the project. It was called 'Carrying the Fire'.
oldmohawk:)
 
I remember a night 45 years ago when I sat tensely listening to the first moon landing live. I remember the '1202' computer alarms but had forgotten about the frequent loss of signal during the descent and they used a computer which was so primitive by today's standards. Listen to the audio live and see the view out the window on the link below.
https://www.firstmenonthemoon.com/
 
43 years ago on Thurs 7th Dec 1972 the last visit to the moon started and Mission Duration was 12 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes, 59 seconds.
I remember watching it on and off over the 12 days much of it live - those Saturn 5 rockets were fantastic and the views of the mountains on the moon unbelievable at the time - they had a lunar rover - amazing days so long ago when we did not have laptops and mobile phones and most TVs were black and white ! Perhaps it was a waste of money but who knows ?
 
Visit to Kennedy Space Centre, June 1981. Click to enlarge...
Pedro, many of us have been watching this stuff for many years and it’s still exciting! We were on our honeymoon in 1969 and we watched the moon landing from our hotel lobby in Puerto Rico and recently the Spacex flight. The excitement is still there and so much new technology is developed from it!
 
50 years gone by since I watched the launch (on tv) of Appolo 11 to the Moon and a few days later listened live to the landing on the Moon.

Today Artemis 1 hopefully sets off in the 2 hour launch window starting at 1.30pm BST. They currently have a small problem with filling of liquid hydrogen. I shall be watching on Nasa Live TV, which is live at the moment ... click the play icon ...
 
Our best man at our wedding is an Aeronautical Engineer, masters and MBA. He was most influential in getting me back to University and still enjoying life in Florida. He was the inventor of the exploding bolts that allowed the return of the astronauts from the moon surface. Some may recall that those bolts had to separate at exactly the right/same time or the separation would not occur properly and the mission would fail. Much focus was given to the broken switch which was activated by a ball point pen!
 
Mission off for today, they could not correct a problem with engine number 3. Earliest next launch slot Sept 2 ....:oops:
 
Perhaps a little off track but just thinking of all the work and money that has gone into getting these rockets into space, yet the Osprey chicks I have been watching since they hatched, [on the Loch of the Lowes web site], now just over 4 months old, will soon be taking off for a journey of about 6,000 km to their winter home in West Africa. No Sat Nav's for them or engines costing Millions. Then come next April they are like to return again to Scotland. That is a marvel !!
 
Perhaps a little off track but just thinking of all the work and money that has gone into getting these rockets into space, yet the Osprey chicks I have been watching since they hatched, [on the Loch of the Lowes web site], now just over 4 months old, will soon be taking off for a journey of about 6,000 km to their winter home in West Africa. No Sat Nav's for them or engines costing Millions. Then come next April they are like to return again to Scotland. That is a marvel !!
Also with a short detour off track ... perhaps further birds discussion should be in the gardening thread
Housemartins nest on my house and soon they will fly off to somewhere in Africa and the young birds have obviously never been there. They have built a mud nest and re-use it each year. My car is parked under their flight path to and from the nest and I'm forever cleaning off what they drop on it.. Each winter I think about poking down the nest but never do and suppose it is just as much their world as it is mine ... :)

Back on track, I note that the Artemis program is expected to have an ultimate price tag of $93 billion ...:rolleyes:
 
Also with a short detour off track ... perhaps further birds discussion should be in the gardening thread
Housemartins nest on my house and soon they will fly off to somewhere in Africa and the young birds have obviously never been there. They have built a mud nest and re-use it each year. My car is parked under their flight path to and from the nest and I'm forever cleaning off what they drop on it.. Each winter I think about poking down the nest but never do and suppose it is just as much their world as it is mine ... :)

Back on track, I note that the Artemis program is expected to have an ultimate price tag of $93 billion ...:rolleyes:
oldMohawk, I would move your car :) some of those droppings are not always friendly to car paint!
 
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