Lunar Spacecraft Images, A place for moon panoramas, mosaics etc. Options

[ljk4-1]

And wouldn't the color/shading of the impact area also depend on what kind
of surface material the crashing spacecraft would dig up?

A little crude surface science could be done from these old versions of
Deep Impact, I presume?

[Phil Stooke]

We don't have a good sample, and the different sources of information may be detecting different things. Looking at the two SIVB impacts, Apollo 16 pancam images show disturbed areas about 1 km across (A13) and maybe 4 km across (A14). Ranger 7's disturbed area is about 200 m diameter in Apollo 16 pancam, but (very marginal detection) 1 km across in Clementine IR.

Phil

[PhilHorzempa]

It would be nice to find the impact location of Luna 2. However, I've been thinking
about the upper stage of the R-7 that sent Luna 2 on its way. Wouldn't it be follwing
essentially the same path as Luna 2? I don't have the numbers handy, but as I recall
that upper stage was much more massive than Luna 2 and, therefore, would have left
a much larger impact crater.
As for the American Ranger and Surveyor probes, does anyone know if the upper
stages of the Atlas boosters impacted the Moon for some of those missions? That would
be Agena upper stages for Ranger and Centaur for Surveyor. In addition, did the upper
stages for other Soviet Luna missions impact the Moon?

Another Phil

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

The Agena and Centaur stages were deliberately aimed to miss the Moon to eliminate any tiny chance of biocontamination. I believe the Soviets did NOT do this, but am not sure about whether this was true in all cases. (As for identifying their impact craters: there's an awful lot of territory down there, with an awful lot of similar-looking holes in it.)

[Phil Stooke]

Reports at the time all agree that the Luna 2 upper stage struck the moon about 30 minutes after the spacecraft itself. If it followed the same trajectory, but half an hour behind it, it would be displaced by the moon's orbital motion in 30 minutes, which by my reckoning suggests an impact near the east limb - north of Mare Crisium. But there was no tracking I'm aware of or any other estimate of location I've ever seen.

Luna 5's upper stage crashed near Pitatus crater - mentoned elsewhere on here - while the spacecraft crashed near Lansberg crater close to the equator. As far as I know all other Soviet upper stages missed the moon.

It would be very difficult to find these craters. Impossible, I would think.

Phil

[Bob Shaw]

An eccentric artistic globe-making enterprise which is recreating many very interesting old globes, including Robert Maxwell's Pergamon 1963 lunar globe.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/greavesandthoma...lobe_lunar.html

And have a look at the company van! *Joy!*

Bob Shaw

[Phil Stooke]

Surveyor 6 goodies:

The raw panorama, scanned from hardcopy at USGS Flagstaff.



The cleaned panorama. The full size is 11000 pixels long.



Foreground in vertical projection (approximately). F indicates a footpad imprint from the initial landing (this pan is post-hop). One more is hidden under the spacecraft. C indicates imprints made by the 'crushable block' shock-absorbers. The blast effects of the vernier thrusters, used to make the short hop, are clearly visible in a symmetrical pattern near the C imprints.



And more:

polar projection of the cleaned panorama.



another polar projection showing the distant areas better.




Now I have completed the set of five Surveyor panoramas. I am still planning to get the full res data up on a website eventually.

Phil

[Bob Shaw]

Phil:

Superb!

And I'm really looking forward to that revamped website! Ever thought of putting up some QuickTime VR images?

Bob Shaw

[Phil Stooke]

Bob asks: "Ever thought of putting up some QuickTime VR images?"

No. But somebody else is welcome to do it!

Phil

[Bill Harris]

>Now I have completed the set of five Surveyor panoramas...

Wonderful pans, Phil. And I do like your treatment of the Lunar sky, very realistic...

--Bill

[tedstryk]

Great work!

[edstrick]

AMEN!...I "cut my planetary science teeth" on JPL TR-32-1023, Surveyor 1 Mission Report, Volume II, Science Rsults (Somebody later borrowed it and I never got it back... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). To say I have a soft spot for the Surveyor data is an understatement.

[tedstryk]

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[/quote]

I have had this happen quite a few times. It seems when ever I loan out a rare book, it grows legs and runs off....

[lyford]

Isn't that how rare books are acquired in the first place?
No, wait, that's how they become rare.

Despite the wonderfulness of teh internets, a book is so much more...
Over the years, I have lost a few gems, but have gained a few as well from friends moving or whatever. So Kharma=0.

[PhilHorzempa]

Now I have completed the set of five Surveyor panoramas. I am still planning to get the full res data up on a website eventually.

Phil

I commend you on your hard work and excellent results. I do have one
request, however. I have longed to see more of the terrain around Surveyor 7.
All that has been available over the years has been the "periscope" view of
a slice of the surrounding hilly terrain, a small distance North of Tycho.
Could you post a sneak preview of a Surveyor 7 panorama that shows more
of the distant, interesting terrain around that lander?


Another Phil