LRO re-images Tranquility base

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in its final orbit for almost two months now and has passed over the Apollo 11 landing site again, but this time only 50km above. The full power of the camera is now revealed.


The Sun is almost directly overhead, so the surface seems 'flat' with no shadows, but look at the big bright blob. That's the landing stage of the LEM, the four dots around it are the landing pads. To the South are the scientific instruments they left behind and snaking around are the tracks left by Armstrong and Aldrin.

The whole image is little more than 100m across, if there were astronauts there now they would probably be visible. Amazing.

See Bad Astronomy for more. Grow into these trousers... >>

LCROSS to slam into the Moon

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will tomorrow experience a rather abrupt deceleration as it plunges into a crater near the South pole of the Moon.

Launched together with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO - the one with my name on it) LCROSS clung to the final stage of the rocket motor and fuel tank. In a long looping orbit, LCROSS has slowly pointed the spent stage on a suicide dive into a crater where the Sun never shines. Shortly before impact LCROSS with detach from the rocket stage but follow it down a few minutes later. As the rocket stage hits and throws up debris LCROSS will fly into the plume with all detectors on full. Wow!

The LRO will be watching from orbit and ground based telescopes too. Let's see what's thrown up, some people hope to detect water, maybe lots of it, I just want to hear the results. Grow into these trousers... >>

I'm going to Mars next

Some folks were interested in my 'I'm going to the Moon' post, and the follow-ups about the LRO/LCROSS mission. The best is yet to come there!

Even more amazing is this:


How did I get my name on the Mars Science Laboratory? Easy, just like LRO I signed up online. You can do the same. Read about it and sign up here. Bookmark your certificate page to go back.

See you on the Red Planet. Grow into these trousers... >>

LRO - oh deep joy!

"All time sometime deep joy of a full Moon scintillating dangly in the heavenly bode" - Happiness Stan, The Small Faces

In the week where everyone is celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the 1^st Moon landing (if you're not, then you should be. It's one of humanities greatest achievements), the LRO snaps this image:

Not much to see you may think; but what's that little, right-pointing shadow bang in the centre? I'll blow it up.

All is revealed below the belt...

It's the bottom half of the Eagle, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) on Apollo 11.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

WOW!
LRO is still in the commissioning phase of its mission. It's not down to its working orbit yet, so the final resolution should be at least twice as good as this.


Remember, the last time anyone saw this object it was from a lot closer.

Buzz Aldrin looks back at his taxi home.
The LRO has captured images of all the other Apollo sites except 12 (coming soon). On the image from Apollo 14 you can actually see the path made by the astronauts as they trekked back and forth to some experimental equipment! Amazing.
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LRO images, credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University Grow into these trousers... >>

LRO, first images from the Moon

These pictures from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter were released a few days ago but lack of time has made me slow posting.

They were taken just at sunrise so the shadows are deep and only high ground is illuminated (or is it sunset? North is down in these photos the Sun is to the left and the Moon rotates once a month and blah... I can't visualise it just now).

But get this, the field is a 1400m square. That's a lot less than a mile across, and the LRO hasn't got down to its final orbit yet. Nowhere near. At a guess the two craters with brightly lit rims; a bit to the right, above and below the center line, are round about 50m across. This is just a test of the systems. The best is yet to come.

Investigate below the belt for another photo and a movie!



And the good people at the Goddard Space Center have assembled a movie. Oooo!

NASA | HD Lunar Flyover of the First Images from the LRO Camera
Grow into these trousers... >>

A little more on LRO and LCROSS

Regulars will know I got my name emblazoned across the LRO on a CD (or a DVD whatever) riding piggy-back on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It's no big deal, but it is good fun (or what passes for fun chez Holroyd, at least it was free).


So here's a quick look at what the mission is about.

NASA has resolved to return to the Moon. With manned peopled crewed missions. The ultimate aim being to establish a permanent colony there. This is a good thing. Should we ever plan a trip to Mars or beyond, the experience of building and maintaining a lunar colony will be crucial.

It's also a very challenging thing. Where to land, where to build a colony? With no protective atmosphere, the Moon receives the full force of the Sun's radiation across the entire spectrum. Long term excursions out in the sunlight are very hazardous, but move into shadow and the Sun is gone. However the Moon rotates once a month, so shadows change as the Sun crosses the sky. In many areas you would have to find a cave (unlikely), or dig a hole to live in, to avoid the Sun.

So the search is on! Where on the Moon is there permanent shadow? By analogy with the Earth, we know that at the poles the amount of sunlight hitting the surface is reduced (or stretched over a bigger area) and shadows are long.

Enter the LRO. With a one year primary mission and a suite of instruments, including a high-res camera and a useless disc with names on it, LRO will enter a low polar orbit and map the surface. From 50km! That's low, the best image resolution will be about 1m which is enough to detect previous landing sites. Google Moon will need a makeover.

But just pause for thought. What does the surface of the Moon have in abundance? Craters! Could a crater near the North or South pole be deep enough to provide permanent shade. The answer is definitely yes, lots of them. The real question is which one to choose. Find a good one for instance, and you are in permanent shadow on the crater floor but raising your solar panels 20m or so, they could catch (just about) permanent sunshine (and then your iPod works 24/7).

What else is missing from this picture? There is a long cherished dream valid scientific hypothesis that comets may have carried water to both the fledgling Earth and Moon billions of years ago. Somewhere, under the floor of some craters, there could be ice on the Moon. Sitting buried for aeons till some enterprising ape comes to tap it.

Given the transport costs of supplies to a lunar colony, having a local water reserve is priceless. A liter of water is a kilogram mass, and even if you recycle sweat and urine there will be losses. Better still, if you have water and your iPod's still working, you can use electricity to split good old H₂O into oxygen and hydrogen. You can then use the hydrogen as a fuel by burning it in oxygen to make water! Bingo, transportable fuel. Otherwise I suppose you could just breathe the oxygen, again reducing the transport cost from Earth.

Enter LCROSS, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite. Forget looking from a distance like LRO, LCROSS will plant a great big smackeroo on the Moon. Whilst the LRO detached from the upper stage of the rocket ~45mins after launch (and is now on it's way to the Moon) LCROSS remains attached and the two are now in a wide Earth orbit. The spent rocket stage is called Centaur, remember this.

LCROSS and Centaur will spend a few weeks in a strange, Earth/Moon looping, orbit, picking up some momentum and making sure Centaur's fuel tanks are fully vented (so as not to confuse future observations). The craft will re-orientate itself so that Centaur is leading (unlike the picture: the little black cube on the left is LCROSS, the brown and white thing is Centaur) and LCROSS will give the push to send them both Moonwards irrevocably. Not to caress but to hit. The ultimate guided missile.

Shortly before impact LCROSS will separate from Centaur. The target (I believe, I'm writing from memory) is a crater near the southern pole, who's floor is in permanent shadow. Centaur will hit the crater floor throwing up a plume of ejected material, some of which will be the original Moon, some may be from whatever formed the crater, and some scum from the vapourised Centaur. 4mins later LCROSS will follow Centaur down, instruments blazing, into the dust plume and right down to the surface. Like a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias they wont get much time to think about it.

Telescopes worldwide will be watching, as will the LRO. Will there be evidence of water? Let's see...

And that's why I get so hyper about space missions. Grow into these trousers... >>

LRO/LCROSS: launch video from NASA

The Atlas V is so elegant. But it's slender beauty belies the awesome power of this rocket. It's about 12.5 ft wide, 189 ft high, weighs 1,205,200 lb and develops 860,200 lbs of thrust (for the non-Americans that's 3.8 m by 58 m, 546,700 kg and 4 MN (Mega Newtons)).

But just watch this baby fly:
Grow into these trousers... >>

I'm going to the moon!

After all these years, I'm finally going to the Moon.

Yup, it's true. I lost my old ticket (see my Blog header) but last year I got a new one.


OK it's only my name which is going to the Moon, on a CD with a million other signatories, but that's enough. Dream fulfilled.


Right now the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) are poised atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral.

Launch is set for 10pm UK time (5pm EDT) - wish me luck folks! Grow into these trousers... >>