Japanese SELENE (Kaguya) Lunar Mission Spots Apollo 15 Landing Site (Images)
Written by Ian O'Neill
The Apollo 15 Lunar Module in 1971 (NASA)
The Japanese lunar mission SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), also known as "Kaguya" has imaged the "halo" left behind in the lunar surface from Apollo 15's lunar module engine exhaust plume. This is the first time a mission after the Apollo Program has detected such a feature. Apollo 15 landed on the Moon in 1971 in a region called Mare Imbrium, and SELENE's Terrain Camera (TC) is continuing to reconstruct a 3D view of the region in unprecedented high-resolution.
The Hadley Rille, at the foot of the Apennine Mountains encircling the Mare Imbrium where Apollo 15 landed (NASA/JAXA)
Apollo 15 touched down on the lunar surface on July 31st, 1971 with David Scott and James Irwin, to carry out 18.5 hours of lunar extra-vehicular activity. This was the first "J mission" where a greater emphasis was placed on scientific studies. After the lunar module blasted off from the Moon, the lunar astronauts looked back on the launch site to see a fresh "halo" had formed after the surface was exposed to the module's engine exhaust plume. The NASA astronauts took before and after shots of the landing zone where a lightening of the surface is evident. This halo had not been observed since Apollo 15, until the high resolution Terrain Camera on board SELENE imaged the region.
Apollo 15 halo as observed by SELENE (JAXA)
The image (pictured left) processed by the SELENE mission instrument team appears to show a bright patch in the exact location of the Apollo 15 lunar module landing zone at the foot of the Apennine Mountains around the Mare Imbrium close to "Hadley Rille." The Hadley Rille is a sinuous rille with a length of 80km and depth of 300m. A "sinuous rille" is a long, narrow, meandering depression in the lunar surface (much like a river basin, minus water). One of the primary mission objectives of Apollo 15 was to understand the origin of this rille. The most likely cause of Hadley Rille is lava flow during early development of the Moon. For the Apollo 15 astronauts, this region will have been an awesome sight, especially being at the base of the towering Apennine Mountains.
Comparison between 3D SELENE landscape and Apollo 15 photo (JAXA/NASA)
The TC instrument has been instrumental in creating 3D visualizations of the lunar surface. In the example left, a comparison of the TC reconstruction and an actual Apollo 15 photograph are compared. Although some of the detail is missing (as the individual rocks are below the 10 meter resolving power of the orbiting camera), the scenes are identical. The SELENE mission (launched in 2007) continues to generate a huge amount of 3D data, contributing to some of the most detailed maps of the lunar surface ever created.
Source: JAXA
August 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
We couldn't survive passing through the Van Allen belt, let alone land on the moon safely. As for why, can you say cold war and the demand that billions of dollars were not spent in vain.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
The amount of radiation an astronaut would recieve while traveling through the Van Allen Belt is the same as a dental x-ray.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Truth will prevail
the speculators must stop
I think a lot of conspiracy theorist will have to remove their miss information especially the one about the wavy flag we all now know that a flag will wave more in a vacuum as there is nothing to stop it moving!
Thank you for showing this
September 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
It will be incredible to have a hires photo of the lunar module legs that stay on the moon.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
This proves nothing at all! Let's see the rover.
September 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
bob: Listen to Ramachandran's speech again. That has nothing to do with what mirror neurons are for.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
The idea that the whole moon mission was faked is crazy. There is no way that many people could keep a secret. It would actually be harder to fake it than to actually do it. Not to mention, how do you fake the russians? But those that believe it was faked will probably say that the current missions were faked to cover for nasa…for some sort of crazy reason. Oh well, I guess its easier for some people to believe a lie than to accept the truth.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:08 am
I still think the Nixon Administration faked the whole thing, where is the hardware that they supposedly left behind. The rest of you are just so easy.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I am with Hmmm. I want to see the lander, and especially the American flag. I am torn. I want to believe we were there, but, as a girl with a sense of humor, if it was a hoax, one cannot help but admire the scope of it. It doesn't make me think a bit less of all involved. I have long had a dream of an especially lovely alien hoax, but do not have the resources to pull it off.
Also, why have we never returned? Malcolm Forbes and Bill Gates should have "retreats" there. If it's true then shame on us for never going back, and if it's a hoax- well done, it held up for nearly half a century, and fooled the whole damn world. Also made us move forward toward the future. Hoax or not, it was one of the best moments of my life, and was a good thing for the people of Planet Earth.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Looks like Apollo used an accurate back drop for there stage. I guess when you spend 1 Billion dollars on a movie, you a couple things right.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
The lunar missions passed thru the Van Allen belt in under 30 seconds, and they did register recieveing the equivilant to a decent chest x-ray. Or 3 years of radiation acumulated by living on earth. Don't forget they were moving around 30,000 or more mph. The van allen belt is about 100 miles wide. Or about 30 seconds. also they were shielded in aluminum and coated materials to reflect cosmic rays and radiation. Thats the idea of having 1,000 engineers work with you who know something rather than an average Joe mentallity mechanics building a big back yeard deathtrap.. There aer now pics published on the web from the japanese probe, and also a enhanced via digital filters telescope from 2007 where all the lunar landers are visable, not the best resolution, but even the tracks in the dirt are visable. Just do some readin and research before fallign for the conspiracy idiots.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Also consider trying to see a green van parked in a field from 200,000 miles away, on a rock that is 10,000 miles in Diameter. Even our best spy satalites are fooled by visible light adn they can read licene plates. But there has never bee the effort to use that sophisicated technology to lok at a huge rock in space to prove that we went there. The contast alone between the white/ gray lunar lander base, remember the lander left, Just the small base that held the landign gear was left, the rover, which is white, and some gear and the good old Old Glory. And tell me how easy it will be to spot on a 10,000 mile dia rock that is the same color as the stuf sitting on it, and that is smaller than a van? or a sedan? The contrast is not easily achieved. It has been done, there are pics online by a professor who pit digital filters on a 20 meter telescope in columbia university. you can see the stuff, just not crystal clear images. And japans newest sataliote is digitally mapping the surface for objects down to 3 meters in size. The lunar rover is only 2 meters long, the landing platform is 1.5 meters in size on top, then it has the landing legs which are just that. Legs. So what do you really expect to see with todays technology. If we put a 3 billion us defense satalite over the moon, sure we coudl find Lockheed and Nasa's part numbers on the plates, ETC. But for what?
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 am
Notice how similar the apollo mission pictures are to the 3D images constructed by the japanese. Are you now suggesting that 40 years after the moon landing the Japanese are now part of the conspiracy?
January 8th, 2009 at 12:45 am
We have satellites in orbit around the earth that take pictures at Hi Res down to the street able to see a car clear as day. Google earth even has Hi Res pictures. So for all to say that its not possible to see the surface of the man you are so wrong. Did you ever think maybe they don't want us to see the surface? I am open minded to the apolo mission and i do be leave we went there. But i also be leave that from those missions things was learned that are Government does not want us to know about. As one of the Apolo astronauts are just know speaking out about what they say that day. We have the technology to see what ever we want its just not made puplic and never will. Is there little green men visiting are world? I have no clue and can not answer yes or no. But i do and will always have an open mind and try to view things that i don't understand or have a answer for from both sides. There are many things we don't know and will never know until its time or are government wants us to know. And for security reasons some things are best keep secret. Just think if are government said we found some new technology on the moon or something like that and it ended up in the wrong hands you all would be the first to say why did they not just keep it secret. You can't have it both ways! But you can be open minded and respect all sides. Just because you can't see something does not mean its not there or real. As in space you can't see anything so i guess you would have to be leave that nothing is there and thats the end of it. Well if we did that we would still be looking at the moon and nothing past it.