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Lunar orbiter spots Apollo landing sites

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Hari Seldon said:
Why are we wasting tax money getting "proof" for these idiots?
The mission is to map the lunar surface in unprecedented detail. They're just taking the Apollo site pictures out of historical interest, it's not the point of the mission.

More here at NASA.gov with larger images

The spacecraft's current elliptical orbit resulted in image resolutions that were slightly different for each site but were all around four feet per pixel. Because the deck of the descent stage is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo relics themselves fill an area of about nine pixels. However, because the sun was low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle variations in topography create long shadows. Standing slightly more than ten feet above the surface, each Apollo descent stage creates a distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.

The image of the Apollo 14 landing site had a particularly desirable lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module and instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints.
 
Lucky Forward said:
The mission is to map the lunar surface in unprecedented detail. They're just taking the Apollo site pictures out of historical interest, it's not the point of the mission.

OK, so why are we wasting our tax money on mapping the surface of the moon?? :/
 
369240main_lroc_apollo16labeled_256x256.jpg


I can't be the only one who sees that face. :lol
 
What confuses me is why would moon lander doubters believe new photos from NASA about the moon landing when NASA is the very organization they didn't believe to begin with? It's not like some independent party somehow sent back verification. It's the same group that they claim lied about the whole thing.
 
sykoex said:
Seriously where's the flag? Apparently there's no wind on the moon so it's not like it could have blown away.

Apollo 11's flag probably was blown away, from the rocket of the ascent stage. It was planted not far from the LEM, and that was really just for the photo op. Nobody really thought about the rocket wash until subsequent missions.

Besides, trying to spot a pole in the ground with a bit of cloth attached to it from that high up using a digital camera... I mean, even if it wasn't blown clear, you are not going to see it.
 
Norml said:
Those are some huge footprints.
Look closer...The arrows pointing to footprints shows the tracks between the lander and the scientific instruments. Like a trail in a desert.
 
Marty Chinn said:
What confuses me is why would moon lander doubters believe new photos from NASA about the moon landing when NASA is the very organization they didn't believe to begin with? It's not like some independent party somehow sent back verification. It's the same group that they claim lied about the whole thing.

Keep in mind that NASA doesn't give a shit about non believers. They know what they did 40 years ago, and then repeated 5 times. Nothing in the LRO press release even mentions doubters, and nor should it either. Only news articles seemingly have the need to acknowledge that these nut jobs exist.

NASA's not about to come out and say "SEE! WE REALLY DID IT!". They have all the evidence in the world to convince people that the moon landings happened, it's just a shame that some people have a level of intelligence low enough to want to believe it didn't happen.
 
Norml said:
So they are not smart enough to put the flag where that wouldn't happen?:lol
The surface of the moon is actually quite hard...its a rock really covered in dust. They stuck the flag in and found it wouldn't go very far...they tried multiple times before they simply gave up and moved to more important matter. When they blasted off the surface, they blew it down. IIRC, you can see it fall in the footage from within during blast-off.

By the way, as I've mentioned in the past here, for anyone wanting details (lots of detail) regarding Apollo 11, I highly suggest you find a copy of this...

APOLLO11.jpg


It's just DVD but the quality is excellent and the materials are presented in a no-frills manner. The neatest part is the actual landing...you can switch views using the angle feature to see it "Live" from multiple points of view. Still camera shots that Armstrong took at the foot of the LEM are cut into display at the moment he takes the shot. Very nice and highly recommended.
 
GodofWine said:
OK, so why are we wasting our tax money on mapping the surface of the moon?? :/

The same reason they're going to blow a piece of it up in a few months; because they can.
 
Tobor said:
It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone would think the landing was faked. :lol

The fucking laser reflectors have been used since Apollo 11 for longtime study. What, they faked all that data for 40 years? Ridiculous.

Not to mention things like the rocks brought back on which independent scientific teams have observed microscopic features that could have never happened on Earth rocks and would be impossible to fake...
 
Black and white pictures...really? Fuckin NASA, I can zoom into my toilet with Google map but you have black and white fuzzy pictures. We'll be in Mars in no time at this pace.
 
i love how the skeptics ask their questions with such certainty and conviction that it betrays their total lack of understanding of the real world (not the made up one in the holy texts)

'would footprints last 40 years?'
doubt!

'jesus walks on water'
truth!
 
thefit said:
Black and white pictures...really? Fuckin NASA, I can zoom into my toilet with Google map but you have black and white fuzzy pictures. We'll be in Mars in no time at this pace.
Are they black and white? This is the moon we're talking about, color wouldn't even mater.. plus, NASA to this day sometimes uses B&W imagery as it gets sharper results in detail that could be lost with color. Stop whining..
 
Sentry said:
Are they black and white? This is the moon we're talking about, color wouldn't even mater.. plus, NASA to this day sometimes uses B&W imagery as it gets sharper results in detail that could be lost with color. Stop whining..

Shut up.
 
Diablos said:
This means nothing to the tinfoil crowd. They'll just say it is a shop.

It's not a Shop. NASA has just been sending props to the moon to make it look like it's a landing area.
 
thefit said:
Black and white pictures...really? Fuckin NASA, I can zoom into my toilet with Google map but you have black and white fuzzy pictures. We'll be in Mars in no time at this pace.

You do realise that the LRO's mission was to map the moon, not provide you with HD colour high res shots of the left over LEM parts ? Right ?

Plus this thing is like, 30 kilometres above the surface. Idiot.
 
090717-space-apollo14-bcol-10a.jpg


LuCkymoON said:
those are actually tracks left by the lunar rover.
Norml said:
But NASA says footprints.

Those aren't lunar rover tracks, the first rover didn't go up until Apollo 15. It's the trail of footprints left by two astronauts shuffling back and forth through the dust between the lander and the package of science experiments they set up.

Here's a shot of that package, you can see how much the lunar surface is stirred up where they've worked. That's the trail you are seeing in the orbiter pic.

a14_asp_lg.gif
 
Lucky Forward said:
http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090717-space-apollo14-bcol-10a.jpg




Those aren't lunar rover tracks, the first rover didn't go up until Apollo 15. It's the trail of footprints left by two astronauts shuffling back and forth through the dust between the lander and the package of science experiments they set up.

Here's a shot of that package, you can see how much the lunar surface is stirred up where they've worked. That's the trail you are seeing in the orbiter pic.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_14/images/a14_asp_lg.gif

Funny how people don't seem to have the imagination to how these tracks could have been created. This sort of ignorance forms the basis of the conspiracy theories.
 
369440main_lroc_apollo11_lrg.jpg


Cant wait till the orbiter gets closer then. As things are now, conspiracy theorists are going to flip out even more than usual.
 
Thanks for posting the closeup shots.

Annoys the crap out of me that we have satelites that can read the text on a gum wrapper from space but we get blurry shots of the moon surface.

I don't cater to the "fake" crap but I wish there was some super detailed footage to make peopel STFU. If I worked at Nasa I would have landed one of those mars rovers on the moon already ;P
 
Mr Pockets said:
Thanks for posting the closeup shots.

Annoys the crap out of me that we have satelites that can read the text on a gum wrapper from space but we get blurry shots of the moon surface.

I don't cater to the "fake" crap but I wish there was some super detailed footage to make peopel STFU. If I worked at Nasa I would have landed one of those mars rovers on the moon already ;P

At this point they could have a person reporting live from the moon in 1080p and people would claim it was fake,Nothing can change their minds.
 
If you forget about all the conspiracy bullshit for a minute, these are actually really neat images.

DOBERMAN INC said:
At this point they could have a person reporting live from the moon in 1080p and people would claim it was fake,Nothing can change their minds.
Bingo.
 
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