Telescope Reviews: Re: Lunar (orbital) photos of manmade objects?

Thanks Curt and David!

From the site Curt provided I found some additional pics taken from the orbit showing some interesting Apollo -related pics...

Also found a paper by C.M.Pieters (et al) submitted to COSPAR/ICEUM8 proceedings, suggesting some calibration points for further Lunar orbital photography (as that Orbiter 3 / Surveyor pic was important for calibration originally).

About those manmade craters, I also found an interesting resource: APOLLO OVER THE MOON. A View From Orbit Editors HAROLD MASURSKY, G. W. COLTON, and FAROUK EL-BAZ Scientific and Technical Information Office 1978 NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION, Washington, D.C . (NASA SP-362).

There is an interesting discussion on page [126] starting on figure 120, in the chapter dealing with craters (Chapter 5, Craters 2 / 6) about the amount of manmade craters on the Moon at the moment of the book being published in 1978.

According to professor Ewen A. Whitaker of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, there was estimated to be some 28-36 manmade craters on the Lunar surface. About five of them had been identified visually at that time.

Professor Whitaker found the first crater in 1972. It was caused in February 1971 by intentionally letting the Saturn IV B stage 4 of the launch vehicle impact western Mare Cognitum, for the purpose of creating seismic waves to be registered on the Lunar surface. The impact crater has black ejecta rays.

Also on Mare Cognitum, there is the crater of Ranger 7 (July 31 1964), travelling at a velocity of 2,65 km / second and making a 14 m crater with light rays (thus different from the crater by Saturn IV B stage).

Ranger 9 impacted to the floor of crater Alphonsus on March 24 1965, intentionally with same orbital velocity and trajectory inclination - creating a similar crater as Ranger 7 by the mere 1/2 meters difference in size.

Be well!

EDIT: added info on the manmade craters from the book

Edited by Mare Nectaris (07/07/08 10:40 AM)

Post Extras