Research Stories

by Nicole Staab

We’re baaaack!

NASA scientists are keeping the imaging system busy on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The orbiter recently had its first of many opportunities to photograph the old Apollo landing sites.

Scientists used the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) to get images of five of the six Apollo sites, just days before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that first put humans on the moon’s surface.

Mark Robinson operates LROC. The new images show the lunar module descent stages the departing Apollo astronauts left behind. Long shadows make their locations evident. The shadows are the result of a low sun angle at the time of collection.

Four of the six Apollo landing sites, as captured by the LROC’s narrow angle cameras. Photos: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

"We were able to image five of the six Apollo sites” says Robinson, LROC’s principal investigator and a professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “We were very interested to get our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill—and to see how well the cameras had come into focus.”

Robinson says that the biggest variables for getting images of the old Apollo landing sites are spacecraft altitude (ground scale) and time of day. That translates into signal strength.

“The best discrimination of features is in the Apollo 14 scene,” he says. “The highest resolution picture covers the Apollo 16 site.”

The image of the Apollo 14 site revealed additional details. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) was a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site. It can be seen in the image, as can the faint trails between the descent stage and ALSEP left by the astronauts’ footprints.

A close-up of the Apollo 14 landing site reveals not only the lunar module, but astronaut footprints, instruments and more. Photo: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Scientists expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo missions. But these first images came prior to the spacecraft reaching its final mapping orbit. As the orbit of LRO is lowered in the weeks to come, LROC will receive many more opportunities to image the landing sites. The resolution of future LROC images of these sites will improve by two to three times.

The pictures provide a reminder of one of humankind’s greatest technological achievements. However, LRO’s primary focus is paving the way for future exploration. By returning detailed lunar data the LRO mission will help NASA identify safe and compelling landing sites for future explorers. It will also help to locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment, and demonstrate new technologies.

For additional information about the LROC instrument and to view the first Apollo landing site images, visit: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu