Apollo Sites from LRO Options

[websterling]

I have downloaded the raw image of the Apollo 12 site, M109386083R.tif and have yet to find the site in the image. I would appreciate it if someone could post the location of the center of Surveyor crater, say in pixels from the upper left corner of the raw image.

[Phil Stooke]

I don't have the pixel location, but it's very close to the right edge and near the middle measured from top to bottom. It is just to the right of and below a prominent bright crater with a dark central spot.

Phil

[websterling]

full inline quote removed - ADMIN

Thanks, Phil.

And if anyone else is looking, the center of Surveyor crater is about 4580 pixels to the right and 25530 pixels down from the upper left corner.

[kenny]

Regarding survival of Apollo 11 flag, it's gone... turned to ashes, dust, according to the guy who made it.

As I posted earier in this thread, #87....

See Post #87 earlier

[Hungry4info]

Well see, that's what I would have expected until the previous page of this thread, where 17's flag was shown to be still there (in some form or another).

[kenny]

Hmmm, I see what you mean, Hungry. Aldrin glanced out the window at the moment of take-off (which he shouldn't have done, because he was supposed to have his head inside looking at instruments - Armstrong was also looking out, having the controls, but the flag was not on his side so he couldn't see it). Aldrin says in his books that he saw the flag blown over by the blast, so it was left lying on its side.

If A17's flag has survived, that's interesting and relevant (assuming it was made of the same material). Hopefully the matter of the present condtion of the A11 flag will be resolved by future images.

[stevesliva]

The comments of the flag manufacturer were simply "the UV would destroy it" based on UV light in earth's atmosphere doing so. I'm no chemist, but it doesn't take too far reading into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_degradation to find that the reaction is using oxygen in the atmosphere to react with the free radicals created by UV. There is more UV but a lot less oxygen up there on the Moon. Did Mythbusters cover this one?

[Hungry4info]

Interesting, about the oxygen being needed.

And nah, Mythbusters didn't cover the flag's deterioration as it wasn't part of the mainstream hoax-belief (and since it was pre-LRO, there's not a lot they could really be safe in saying).

[stevesliva]

A little google indicates that someone had nylon on LDEF. Did they publish? There is probably more oxygen in LEO than on the moon, but it's worth finding the paper if it exists.

[mcaplinger]

There is probably more oxygen in LEO than on the moon...

There is far more atomic oxygen being rammed into the target in LEO than on the moon, so the LDEF results are not very applicable. That said, try http://setas-www.larc.nasa.gov/LDEF/index.html

[PDP8E]

Here is the new low orbit Apollo 11 site, destriped, and cleaned up. The high sun washes out the craters!


here is blow up of just the site


cheers

[ilbasso]

I had a little trouble matching up the components of the EASEP in the latest Apollo 11 site photo, and I believe the caption on the LROC site is incorrect. The object at the bottom is clearly the passive seismic experiment (PSP). The caption on the LROC photo implies that the object at the 1 o'clock position from the PSP was the Lunar Ranging Retro-Reflector (LRRR), but it's in the wrong place. In the photos from the Apollo 11 moonwalk, the LRRR is to the left of a line drawn from the PSP to the LM, but this bright object is to the right of that line. I think that the bright object may be the split boulder that's visible in AS11-40-5950. The LRRR is then the object that's the upper-left vertex of the triangle of objects in the EASEP area. That appears to be the correct spot for it.

On PDP8E's enhancement, what's the bright object at the 4 o'clock position from the LM, about equidistant from the LM as Little West Crater? Is that a boulder or a piece of Kapton?

[Phil Stooke]

I was looking at those things too. I agree with your identification of the bright object as the rock between the two deployed instruments. But looking at their captions it's not so clear to me that they described the locations incorrectly. I would give them the benefit of the doubt on wording. I think the 4 o'clock bright spot is another rock.

Phil

[Maquis]

Rocks were our preliminary conclusion as well. However, after some research I'm almost certain that this artifact is in fact caused by discarded LRRR dust cover.
I've put analysis here: http://astro4u.net/yabbse/index.php?topic=...29267#msg229267

BTW, Hi guys.

[PDP8E]

Maquis,

Interesting chain of evidence on your link - I am almost ready agree.

(welcome aboard)

Cheers