Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Are There Images of the Lunar Landers from Orbit?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-scavenger-hunt-on-the-net dept.

banditski asks: "We have pictures of Mars rovers from taken from orbit, like this photo of Opportunity, but I could not find any of the lunar landers from 60's and 70's? If they do exist, where are they?" More interesting photos from the MRO can be found in an October entry of the Bad Astronomer weblog, and interestingly enough this sentiment was repeated by a couple of posters, there. It won't be until 2008 until we get a fresh pair of 'eyes' on the Moon, but that doesn't mean that there aren't earlier, and just as interesting images buried somewhere on the net. Where can you find interesting orbital photos of the Moon, particularly ones that contain the LEMs, or other photogenic aspects of Tranquility Base?

11 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. No there arn't by 0racle · · Score: 3, Funny

    We never landed on the Moon

    Geez, I thought everyone knew that.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    1. Re:No there arn't by dschuetz · · Score: 4, Funny

      They have a mirror set up on the moon so that anyone who knows where to look can fire a laser at it and get a reflection back;

      How do you know that's not just a shiny rock? :)

  2. here you go by jcgam69 · · Score: 5, Informative

    A discussion of the difficulty of imaging the landers and a picture: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/11jul_lroc .htm

  3. You can look by doroshjt · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html

  4. exactly what you asked for by jcgam69 · · Score: 5, Informative

    These are the best photos available: http://www.tass-survey.org/richmond/answers/lunar_ lander.html#apollo

  5. No by hcdejong · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This NASA press release says that NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (planned for 2008) will be the first time it's possible to take photos of the landers.

    I seem to remember a photo from 1-2 years ago, though. It showed the shadow of the LEM and some nearby stuff (Surveyor?). Not enough resolution to resolve the objects themselves, but the sun was low on the horizon, creating huge shadows.

  6. Famous last excuses of NASA personnel.. by thrill12 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... hurrying to prevent the news that the moon landing in fact never happened from coming out:

    * Quick, launch that space junk towards the moon before LROC comes along !
    * Oh, it seems that we couldn't photograph the landing site due to a metric conversion error.
    * Giant moon storms have suddenly wiped out all evidence of any landing on the moon, what a coincidence eh ?
    * OMG this is not the moon we landed on in 1969, we have been tricked !
    * There is life there, but not as we know it - they made our moon landers disappear.
    * OK, the moon landing was faked - see this little bunny, this funny little bunny ? Look how cute this little bunny is ! So cute !
    * The russians did it !
    * The chinese did it !
    * The martians did it !
    * The democrats did it !
    * In a blatant act of time-terrorism, our moon landing was sabotaged and in fact never ever took place !
    * Due to global warming, our moon landers have shrunk to microscopic size.
    * Because we plan to go to the moon in a decade time again, we decided to clean the place up and remove all evidence of any moon landers. Neat eh ?
    * Our moon landing was an advanced project, so advanced that we calculated the environmental damage the moon equipment would have on the moon would be enormous. Therefore we decided, back then in 1969, to make all equipment on the moon from bio-degradable plastics - and look : they have all degraded !
    * The chance of a meteor hitting the moon is very large - by a mere coincidence meteors have struck the exact same places our moon equipment were at and removed all evidence of us ever being there.

    --
    Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
  7. LRO is the first since 1972 by apsmith · · Score: 3, Informative

    The truth is, we've sent far more and better spacecraft to Mars in the last few decades than to the Moon. The only things the US has sent to the Moon since 1972 have been Clementine, a DoD low-cost project that didn't have anywhere near a good enough camera, and Lunar Prospector, another low-budget item that had no camera at all. Galileo swung by briefly, but not enough to take close-range pictures. Europe has sent SMART-1, again decidedly low-budget: it took over a year to get there and was mainly for testing other things besides photography.

    But that's the Moon for you - the inner city of the solar system that everybody says they care about but nobody does anything.

    --

    Energy: time to change the picture.

  8. But are there images of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Whalers on the moon?

    "We're whalers on the moon, We carry a harpoon. But there ain't no whales So we tell tall tales And sing our whaling tune."

  9. Re:Tin foil hat... by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't it convenient
    Convenient to whom? It's very convenient for the conspiracy theorists as it means they can on thinking that everything is a lie.

    --
    500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  10. Not possible - - yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Telescopes are not an option: http://calgary.rasc.ca/moonscope.htm

    No lunar recon probes have had the camera resolution to do it as far as I know. The closest was SMART-1 which was plowed into the moon.

    http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEM1O6BUQPE_0. html