Lunar Recon Orbiter

[spacecat27]

Not one of the more spectacular launches I've seen, as it was a very hazy day--- but I had to be there because I have this deep fear that this may be the last US spacecraft to leave for the Moon in a long... long time.

[DonPMitchell]

First pictures!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090702_a.html

[LunarOrbit]

HD video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=052DosGtJLs

[DonPMitchell]

Nice video, it's even bigger if you grab the mpeg4 video out of the internet cache and just play it.

LRO is exciting.  I think a lot of people don't realize that we have relatively poor maps of the Moon, compared to Mars.  And there is no decent altitude map of the Moon.  Clementine is the best data up until LRO.

[LunarOrbit]

The first LRO pictures of the Apollo landing sites have been released:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.

The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution.

[Orstio]

Awesome that we finally have a camera close enough with a high enough resolution to snap these historical sites. 

[Johno]

Hah!  Take that, Hoax Believers!  In your face!

[ijuin]

Too bad that the hoax believers will always believe that all evidence against their position is fake.

[Johno]

True enough.  What this WILL do is to basically put it in the can for casual observers; those who say "I don't really know enough about it to be sure one way or the other."  LRO pictures basically give them the proof they ask for.

Curious thing, though - Generation Y and Z kids are very TV-focussed.  That means that if they see a program telling them that it is in doubt, they'll believe that regardless of how flimsy the evidence really is.

It works the other way too, however.  I rarely have any questions suggesting the Apollo landings didn't happen in Yr 8 classes that have watched "Apollo 13".

[ijuin]

A new set of images has been taken of the Apollo landing sites with the spacecraft passing over them at a lower altitude, giving a resolution of 20-30 cm/pixel compared to the previous set's 50-100 cm/pixel. Details here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html