Unmanned landing sites from LRO, Surveyors, Lunas, Lunakhods and impact craters from hardware impacts |
Unmanned landing sites from LRO, Surveyors, Lunas, Lunakhods and impact craters from hardware impacts |
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#101
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 ![]() |
I figured it was time to begin a thread like this, especially since some of us may still be looking for the Surveyor III retro motor casing (assuming the bright dot to the north of the landing site isn't it).
We ought to be seeing some of the other Surveyors fairly soon, I would think. We know most of their locations pretty accurately. Again, I think there is a lot to be gained, both from scientific and engineering standpoints, from detailed imaging of the Surveyor VII landing site, just to mention one. And I really want to see how visible the Lunakhod tracks are as opposed to the MET and LRV tracks. So... until we begin to see images of other unmanned hardware (or the craters caused by same), we could always discuss comparisons of Surveyor III surface imagery to the new LROC images of its landing site here. I'm especially taken by how you can resolve many of the blocks in Block Crater in the LROC image, which gives you a good feel for the explosive nature of the ejecta and roughly where in the ejecta plume a given block might have come from. Might be interesting/useful to apply this information to the samples taken at that location. ![]() -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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#102
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Solar System Cartographer ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 10194 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 ![]() |
I had someone ask me about Surveyor 4 today, and the question comes up every now and then. Recently I tracked down a candidate for it, so here it is, with a bit of speculation.
What should we be looking for? There are three obvious suggestions arising from three possible fates for the spacecraft. 1. Successful landing, but power or communications fail. We would see a lander like the other Surveyors, a lump casting a shadow in low sun images, probably surrounded by a bright patch where the rocket exhaust changes the surface - we see that for most landers. Also, a few hundred meters away we might see a dark spot, possibly resolved as a small crater, where the retro-rocket hit the surface after it was ejected. 2. The retrorocket fails to separate and the small thrusters used for landing fail or can't cope with the extra weight. A crash, showing up as a dark spot or small crater, but no separate retro-rocket impact. 3. The retrorocket separates, but one or more thrusters fail to ignite. The lander falls to the surface, with a retro-rocket impact nearby. What do we see? Here is a map showing the target and a zoom-in sequence leading to my candidate site: And here is a comparison of the five LROC-NAC images we have now: My candidate is a dark spot which, in the best images may be resolved into a small crater. No bright halo, no lump casting a shadow. If it is Surveyor 4, it crashed. South of it at a distance of 200 m is a small dark spot which might be the retro-rocket. To me this suggests scenario 3. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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