ApolloHoax.net

Apollo Discussions => The Reality of Apollo => Topic started by: Peter B on February 23, 2016, 07:22:23 AM

Title: Lunar orbits
Post by: Peter B on February 23, 2016, 07:22:23 AM

Given that only Apollo 11 landed near the lunar equator, obviously the later landing missions had to enter orbits of the Moon prior to landing which were inclined to the lunar equator.

What I was wondering was (and I'm going to apologise now for my lack of correct technical terminology) did the orbit's maximum latitude match the latitude of the landing site?

What I'm trying to get my head around is this: during PDI were the LMs always travelling west, with the Sun behind them and their shadow pretty much directly ahead of them? Or was it that (particularly for A15 and A17) they were travelling at a detectably different angle with their shadow noticeably off to one side?

The reason I'm asking is to get a sense of what PDI and landing for a Tycho mission would have been like, after reading this article: http://www.wired.com/2012/03/apollo-mission-to-tycho-1969/

Thanks very much.

Title: Re: Lunar orbits
Post by: onebigmonkey on February 23, 2016, 07:34:06 AM

You can get an idea of some of the orbits by looking at the photographs they took from it, which I've plotted:

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/apollokmz.html

I think I also plotted the rough trajectory of the final approaches to landing based on the 16mm footage :)

Title: Re: Lunar orbits
Post by: gwiz on February 23, 2016, 08:58:07 AM

Inclinations were usually a bit higher than landing latitude and significantly so for Apollo 14, presumably to aid mapping for later missions.

Title: Re: Lunar orbits
Post by: smartcooky on February 23, 2016, 01:39:42 PM

Quote from: onebigmonkey on February 23, 2016, 07:34:06 AM

You can get an idea of some of the orbits by looking at the photographs they took from it, which I've plotted:

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/apollokmz.html

I think I also plotted the rough trajectory of the final approaches to landing based on the 16mm footage :)

All your links appear to go to a webhosting error 404 page

http://error404.000webhost.com/?


except the two at the bottom, which go to WSODs

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/index.html

Title: Re: Lunar orbits
Post by: Willoughby on February 23, 2016, 01:42:09 PM

Quote from: smartcooky on February 23, 2016, 01:39:42 PM

Quote from: onebigmonkey on February 23, 2016, 07:34:06 AM

You can get an idea of some of the orbits by looking at the photographs they took from it, which I've plotted:

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/apollokmz.html

I think I also plotted the rough trajectory of the final approaches to landing based on the 16mm footage :)

All you links appear to go to a webhosting error 404 page

http://error404.000webhost.com/?

I had the same issue.  All links broken it appears.

Title: Re: Lunar orbits
Post by: tikkitakki on February 23, 2016, 03:31:53 PM

Working links:

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%20Moon.kmz
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2008.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2008.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2010.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2010.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2011.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2011.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2012.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2012.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2014.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2014.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2015.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2015.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2016.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2016.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2017.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2017.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2015%20Metric.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2015%20Metric.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2016%20Metric.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Apollo%2016%20Metric.kmz)
http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Metric%20Imaging%20Camera.kmz (http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/kmz/Metric%20Imaging%20Camera.kmz)