Posted on 07/20/2010 9:45:53 AM PDT by Elderberry
LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites. 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.
Cool! My son has a pre-Apollo Moon globe, and he’s always asking me where on the moon we landed. Now I can show him.
And what makes you think that SpaceX is bound only for LEO when their goal is to get to Mars?
Due to the transit time to get to Mars, I would hope for the Astronaut’s sake that the vehicle is much, much larger than the SpaceX. I would assume that the vehicle would be constructed in orbit, much like the Space Station was assembled.
I don’t know why but I was disappointed looking at the pics. I guess I am so spoiled with our technology that I expected to see detail down to the nuts and bolts and the sole marks in the sand.
A little tinfoil, a little cardboard, a little glue, you'd be surprised what a KEY GRIP or BESTBOY can do. Plus, they just dropped those from orbit before they came back home.
: )
Due to the mechanics of going from orbit around one body, to another, the FASTER you GO, the FURTHER you must go to get to the same spot.
Speed, in this case, is irrespective of time.
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Good grief! I never thought of that! It's true that a wadded up ball of tinfoil will act as an optically perfect laser retro reflector!
That's why so many people wear those aluminum hats! It's all clear now...
: )
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