Targets for LRO |
Targets for LRO |
Apr 6 2007, 09:41 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 172 Joined: 17-March 06 Member No.: 709 |
You can imagine this to be a companion thread to the one requesting suggestions
for MRO targets on Mars. The LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) is set to launch in a little over a year from now. There was to a be a site selection workshop in May 2007, next month, but I see now that it has been cancelled. Therefore, it appears that it is up to us, the UMSF Community to take up the baton and help NASA out. It was done for New Horizons at Jupiter and was very productive. So, what are the sites that you would like to see imaged at 0.5 meter resolution by LROC, LRO's High-Resolution camera? My first suggestion would be to re-photograph the Surveyor 1 landing site to compare it with the images obtained by Lunar Orbiter 3. My second suggestion would be to photograph the Surveyor 6 landing area. This should image S-6 itself, but even more interesting, it may capture images of Surveyor 4, which should be only a mile or so away. This would help to determine whatever happened to S-4, which abruptly stopped transmitting just short of touchdown. Another Phil |
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Apr 7 2007, 08:46 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 117 Joined: 7-December 06 From: Sheffield UK Member No.: 1462 |
If all the science has been achieved from LRO's initial orbit and the spacecraft's perilune is lowered sufficiently it could well image the scuffed up lunar soil around Apollo 11's descent stage. Perhaps even resolving individual bootprints under the required illumination.
That would certainly be one for the album. Resolving the the six LM descent stages may also provide some science. The top surface of the descent stages have a fairly large surface area that has been exposed to space for a known period of time and images of sufficient quality could reveal if they have suffered any small impacts. Of course the vast majority of micro-craters would require a microscope to spot but there may be the odd dent a few CM across in one or more of them. This may help to determine the average impact rate on the lunar surface. Something future Moonwalkers will definately want to know. The crater left by the impact of Luna 2 is another must see and my money's on Phil Stooke for identifying it in LRO images. -------------------- It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.
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