PhilStooke

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

I should add a few Lunokhod pans. These have been cleaned up to remove streaks and other artifacts and projected to have a horizontal horizon.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This map, the last I will show for Luna 17/Lunokhod 1, is a section of the full traverse map. The full map will be part of my future project. On the map X shows where the X-ray instrument made composition measurements and P shows locations of panoramas. 'Plan' shows an area mapped in greater detail, like the two plans i showed yesterday. Lunokhod nearly got stuck in Borya crater as the text box describes. Tomorrow: Apollo is back.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

And an extra today - some hills showed up to the north of the rover, just visible over the horizon. This is an attempt to locate the hills. You can see the Lunokhod panoramas here:

https://planetology.ru/panoramas/lunokhod1.php?language=english

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Here is the actual route mapped from tracks visible in LRO images. The crater names (forms of the first names of rover engineers) were not used at the time and only added a decade or so ago, made official by the IAU. The crossroad was where the rover crossed its tracks as it returned to the lander. The northern route was designed to provide a better view, if possible, of distant hills visible on he horizon. Tomorrow: a close-up.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Today we complete the zoom-in on Luna 17 and Lunokhod 1. In these LRO images tracks are easily visible so the traverse can be mapped accurately. In 1970 it was not so easy. No high resolution orbital images existed, the exact landing point was not known, and the path had to be estimated from driving commands. The Soviet scientists mapped a large shallow crater in the middle of the path so I tried using that to locate Luna 17, but it was so subtle it barely exists. I got the wrong place.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

I will start with context and move in for Luna 17. This mission carried Lunokhod 1, the first remotely controlled rover to operate on another world. It landed in Mare Imbrium near Sinus Iridum, not far from where Chang'e 3 would land later. These maps show the broad area and then zoom in to set us up for finding the lander and rover tomorrow. Astrobotic would have landed in the lower left corner of map A near the Gruithuisen Domes.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This is a 'finder chart' zooming in on the Luna 16 landing site. I make these so I can find the site easily in images. What came after Luna 16? Luna 17, of course. But that's for tomorrow.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

For Luna 9 and Luna 13 I started with a detailed site plan based on surface images. We don't have that here because no surface images were published. Luna 16 had cameras but it landed at night. The camera was used but Russian reports say the images, lit by Earthshine, showed only a few glints off nearby rocks. The data tapes are probably sitting in the Lenin State Library. If only we could get them, my guess is modern image processing methods would show something even if not very pretty.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

OK, so what moon landing did follow Apollo 12? It would have been Apollo 13 but that landing didn't happen, so the next landing mission was Luna 16. Here is a pair of maps showing the site. On the left is a Russian map with the site located on it (Russian cartographers made a strip of maps like these along the equator to support human landing site planning. They are redrawn versions of the US Air Force LAC maps.) On the right is an LRO image.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

As promised, an additional Apollo 12 map today. This is half of an EVA 1 map from a future project. The white lines show pre-LRO estimates of the EVA path and the dark lines shows the EVA based on footprint tracks. The inset shows the ALSEP layout. I hope to have the full EVA map and much more released in about 18 months.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Where is this Apollo 12 site? This set of maps zooms in on the site, and as you would expect it's pretty much the same as the similar map for Surveyor 3. Tomorrow, a bit more detail on this site.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Apollo 12 was intended to land a bit east of Surveyor 3, so the mission plan called for ALSEP deployment SE of the LM. This pair of maps shows the plan at left and the actual arrangement of activities at right, on an LRO image. The activities here were more complicated than for Apollo 11 so the plan shows the TV camera being moved several times to keep the astronauts in view as much as possible. Alas, it was not to be.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

The Apollo 12 landing site was in a different mare basalt area, expected to be younger than the Apollo 11 site. It was to be a 'pinpoint landing' within walking distance of a science target, in this case Surveyor 3. This map shows planning for EVAs in the area depending on the landing point. The original target was northeast of Surveyor but accuracy couldn't be predicted. Each potential site had EVAs laid out to show what might be explored. The Snowman was a landmark to guide the landing.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This is the view from the LM windows (two mini-panoramas joined together), with a bit of reprojection. This is after the EVA. There was another before it.

Tomorrow... Apollo 12!

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

LRO and OHRC images are great, but suppose you crave even higher resolution mapping of the Apollo 11 site. How about using images taken on the surface? Here I have projected panoramas taken during the EVA and from the LM windows onto an LRO base. The P1, P2 etc. sites are panorama stations shown on the previous map. This could be done better! It's a proof of concept map. Tomorrow... where on the Moon is this site?

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This image of the Apollo 11 LM on the surface was taken by Chandrayaan 2's Orbiter High Resolution Camera.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

The next lunar landing was Apollo 11. This pair of maps show the site and activities around the LM. The base image is from LRO.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This is a full panorama of the Surveyor 7 site projected into a circle to show the azimuth to each feature around the lander. I hope you have enjoyed this look back at Surveyor. I think it is under-appreciated because it was immediately eclipsed by Apollo, but 5 out of 7 landed successfully using mid-1960s technology. We should be so lucky today! I hope you are listening, Intuitive Machines... Tomorrow, Apollo 11.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Let's look at the scenery at the Surveyor 7 site. I made this image of the hills north of the lander from single frames scanned at LPI. What a place it would be to walk around. I scanned lots of Surveyor stuff at LPI, Flagstaff and LPL in Tucson about 20 years ago, enough for a panorama of each site (but not all as good as these panorama fragments).

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Where was that Surveyor 7 site? This set of maps zooms in on it. In map C, note the 'lake' or 'playa', a little pool of impact melt. In map B the landing target is shown at its northern tip, but it was really in the middle of the playa. The offset is caused by errors in the coordinates at the time (strictly, errors in positioning Lunar Orbiter 5 images on the map grid).

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This Surveyor 7 map gives context to the workspace map. Like the other maps of this type in my postings, it is a shaded relief rendition of a drawn map in the mission report. The rocks are sized as on the original but they seem a bit larger than they should be. Craters, rocks... a tricky place to land in. Why did they choose this spot? Well, they didn't, the target point is a little way from here as we will see next time.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Also, a photomosaic of the workspace near the end of Surveyor 7 operations. After this was taken, late in the day, Trench 7 was dug between 5 and 6 to build a large pile of subsurface debris which was then covered by ASI for its final reading.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

So here is the workspace, showing trenches and other contact points plus the 3 positions of ASI. The first attempt to move it to a rock was off target so it was picked up again and moved to the rock. Tomorrow, some context for this map.

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

Surveyor 7, the last of these pioneering landers, was sent to a site on the ejecta of Tycho, a large young crater in the southern highlands. Like Surveyor 3 it had an arm, and like Surveyors 5 and 6 it had an alpha scattering instrument (ASI) for composition measurements. ASI was just dropped from its support bracket to the surface, tethered to provide power and communication. The arm was able to pick up and move the ASI so it could measure a rock and a trench debris pile...

PhilStooke, 4 months ago to random

This is a panorama from Surveyor 6 projected into a circle ( a kind of polar projection but with a modified radial scale, a bit like a stereographic projection). You think this looks bad? You should have seen the original! Nevertheless it shows where major features are around the lander.