Article-Can we view the Lunar Module with a Telescope? "Update from Ann: It's still the case that the relatively small telescopes we have on Earth, and orbiting Earth, can't see these tiny features on the Moon. But in 2009 NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) probe to orbit the Moon, study the landscape in detail, and characterize the environment (mostly focused on checking for radiation, with which future astronauts would have to contend)."
"In addition to carrying out this scientific mission, LRO was able to take images of the Apollo landing sites (for the Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions) and could identify the flags and other equipment. Read more about that here or here, and check out NASA's multimedia image archive from LRO including this stunning image of the Apollo 11 site."
What I can’t fathom is how someone today could watch the 16mm color films - hours and hours of it, plus the (thousands?) Hassleblad 70mm color stills and not be absolutely floored by the landscapes. Or moonscapes, I guess.
At the time, we only watched blurry TV scans, due to the technology of the day, they weren’t very high definition. How could anybody imagine it would be remotely possible to convincingly fake the color film and stills? There is absolutely no way.
It is very frightening how easily people can be manipulated into believing (or not believing) in something. Like voting for “Democrats”, or “Republicans”. Yeesh.
Zooking around the moon in orbit aboard the cramped confines in LEM and SM has to rank as the most absolutely badass expeditions of human exploration, bar none. So far. Astronauts reached speeds of up to around 24,000 mph during the return.
We’re approaching the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, a very bold move by NASA where humans first left the earth to visit another heavenly body. The crew took turns reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve, broadcast on the networks during prime time. I still today get a chill every time I hear that, one of the most profound moments of mankinds voyages of discovery. In the past, great explorers were cutoff from civilization and we had to wait years before we even heard or read about them. During Apollo they beamed the expedition right into our living rooms in real time. How cool is that?