LRO Images Apollo 12 Landing Site

By Nancy Atkinson - September 3, 2009 at 7:19 PM UTC | Planetary Science
Apollo-12-site.jpg

[/caption] Back in July when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team released stunning images from several Apollo landing sites, it was not possible at that time to image the Apollo 12 site, the westernmost landing site, due to operational constraints. But now LRO has taken a good look at

Oceanus Procellarum

and the wait was well worth it. Easily and clearly visible are the Lunar Module descent stage and Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), along with astronaut tracks, and the Surveyor 3 spacecraft.

"There are only so many locations that can be imaged at one time," said Mark Robinson, principal investigator of LRO's Camera, LROC. "Not every target can be imaged every time around. I'm glad we had to wait another month, it was very exciting to see this image a month after the excitement of the first round of Apollo landing sites."

LRO is slated to orbit the moon for at least another 12 months, which means Robinson and his team have many more imaging opportunities ahead of them. In mid-September the spacecraft's orbit will be lowered, allowing LROC to acquire even higher resolution images of the Apollo and Surveyor landing sites.

For higher resolution images and more info about about the Apollo 12 site, check out the

LRO website.

Sources:

LRO

,

ASU

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com