Left behind - 40 years ago


NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The picture show the Apollo 11 mission lunar module descent stage sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' location evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites. 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.

Because the deck of the descent stage is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo relics themselves fill an area of about nine pixels. However, because the sun was low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle variations in topography create long shadows. Standing slightly more than ten feet above the surface, each Apollo descent stage creates a distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.

Note: the image has been purposely rotated so as to have the shadows fall towards the observer.

Source and credits: NASA