Apollo 15: Hadley Rille from orbit

[onebigmonkey]

Apollo 14, seen from Apollo 16 in AS16-P-4707 on one of the 2Gb TIF sections of the image:



Took some finding!

[onebigmonkey]

While it is disappointing to find that you are a little behind the times and that there is nothing new under the sun, it's nice to know that Apollo Panoramic camera analyses were publicly available long before Photoshop, and came to the same conclusions:

http://apollo.sese.asu.edu/RESOURCES/Kinney1972_Ap15PanPhotoAnalysis.pdf

[bknight]

So turbonium over on ATS brought up his (and/or her) disagreement with Japan's Kaguya analysis of the burn halo around Apollo 15's LM.

Usual stuff, but I was irked enough to find Chandrayaan's view of the same thing, as they'd also published a paper on it.

Here are the two sources I looked at:

http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2008/05/20080520_kaguya_e.html

http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2008/05/20080520_kaguya_e.html

When I looked closely at the Chandrayaan image, I spotted something.

When I then looked at Kaguya's image, I spotted the same thing.

Here's a comparison of Indias view (left), Japan's (right) and the LRO (centre).



You can argue about the influence of the engine on the surface all you like, but for my one there is incontrovertible evidence of disturbed ground exactly where the LM is. Japan's image also has clear evidence of the same kind of disturbance around the location of the ALSEP, and hint of a trail towards it. India's image could, if it were possible to get a version without the red line of the halo boundary, arguably contain similar evidence of disturbance around the ALSEP and LRV final parking spot.

The Japanese reference above also mentions an Apollo 15 Panoramic Camera image, AS15-9430.

While the version of that image at the Apollo Image Atlas is low quality, the online scan available (and downloadable) at the ASU is very good. Here's what you can see when you zoom into the area of where the LM ended up, and enhance things a little:



and here is the LRO view of the same area:



That's pretty impressive I'm sure you'll agree. What is also impressive is that while the JAXA site claims the image was taken in the first couple of orbits after landing, it is incorrect - it was actually taken on Rev 27, just after the end of the first EVA. That first EVA's job was to set up the ALSEP, and that is exactly where you can see a trail heading.

There were, however, other Panoramic images taken in the early part of the mission, and here's one of them from orbit 16, AS15-9370, cropped and enhanced again:



This image was taken about 22 hours before the previous one, and before the first EVA. Not only is there no evidence of any disturbed ground, the LM shadow is considerably longer.

We also have another pan cam shot taken after the LM had returned to orbit, and while it is less clear than the other two, there is evidently more evidence of human activity - including around where the LRV was parked up before lift off:



The LM shadow has all but disappeared from this view.

So there we are - not only did Japan and India get a view of what Apollo astronauts were up to at Hadley, the CSM's panoramic camera did too

I think Jaxa did a disservice to itself by proclaiming the area that is highlighted is burn/jet effect from the decent engine. I did watch a video from the blunder, and I have to say the area is highly affected by the angle of the sun. more than effects of a decent engine.  BTW you still have great eyes, I still couldn't find the LM in the LRO strip.I would not have made a good photo analysis.  I looked for similar craters and still cvouldn't locate the LM and I know it is down there somewhere.

[onebigmonkey]

BTW you still have great eyes, I still couldn't find the LM in the LRO strip.I would not have made a good photo analysis.  I looked for similar craters and still cvouldn't locate the LM and I know it is down there somewhere.

Rocket science I can't do. Pattern recognition, on the other hand, is a thing I can do

[bknight]

BTW you still have great eyes, I still couldn't find the LM in the LRO strip.I would not have made a good photo analysis.  I looked for similar craters and still cvouldn't locate the LM and I know it is down there somewhere.

Rocket science I can't do. Pattern recognition, on the other hand, is a thing I can do

Obviously!

[bknight]

BTW you still have great eyes, I still couldn't find the LM in the LRO strip.I would not have made a good photo analysis.  I looked for similar craters and still cvouldn't locate the LM and I know it is down there somewhere.

Rocket science I can't do. Pattern recognition, on the other hand, is a thing I can do

Obviously!
obm: from your images of A15, how far away is the LM from Mt. Hadley and how far from the "elbow" of the rille?

[onebigmonkey]

BTW you still have great eyes, I still couldn't find the LM in the LRO strip.I would not have made a good photo analysis.  I looked for similar craters and still cvouldn't locate the LM and I know it is down there somewhere.

Rocket science I can't do. Pattern recognition, on the other hand, is a thing I can do

Obviously!

obm: from your images of A15, how far away is the LM from Mt. Hadley and how far from the "elbow" of the rille?

Well, not from my images but by using Google Earth's measuring tool while on the moon part of the software, it's roughly 3.8 km to Elbow and 10 km to the base of Hadley.

[bknight]

Thanks

[onebigmonkey]

OK so I put together a little page on this

http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/pancam/pancam.html

[bknight]

Great work, obm.