Lunokhod-2 and Apollo

[onebigmonkey]

I've been having some fun with Lunokhod-2 images.

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/lunokhod/luna.html

It landed in 1973 after Apollo, but photos taken by Apollo show details that can be matched with it's surface panoramas

Oh, and I also get to correct a published book on lunar exploration

[bknight]

Was the linear feature, appears to be a depression, crossed by the rover?  Or do the images not show any tracks across it.  The other possibility is that the rover went around the tip and subsequently ended where it rests now.
Is the "channel" imaged towards the end of your layout the same linear feature?

[onebigmonkey]

The major linear feature (fossa recta) wasn't crossed - lunokhod went around the south of it as it is quite deep and steep sided.

There is another one (fossa inconspicua) that it crossed on the way to fossa recta that is much more shallow.

It is possible to download LRO images that cover the whole of its traverse.

[onebigmonkey]

The author of the book in which I spotted that he had his lunokhod images the wrong way round got in touch and has said I'll get a credit in the next edition, which he is currently producing.


Which is nice

[onebigmonkey]

For those who don't follow Space Hipsters on facebook, or the car crash that is Infowars, I've managed to find the USSR's Luna 20 in Apollo 17's Panoramic Image AS17-P-2934:



And (just) Luna 16 in Apollo 16's Panoramic Image AS16-P-5208:



For those of you familiar with the Talking Heads track 'Drugs', all I see is little dots!

[bknight]

Good eyes!
They all do look like dots to me