Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5487257 Icarus 2017 36 Pages PDF
Abstract
High-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) reveal the landing locations of recent and historic spacecraft and associated impact sites across the lunar surface. Using multiple images of each site acquired between 2009 and 2015, an improved Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) ephemeris, and a temperature-dependent camera orientation model, we derived accurate coordinates (<12 m) for each soft-landed spacecraft, rover, deployed scientific payload, and spacecraft impact crater that we have identified. Accurate coordinates enhance the scientific interpretations of data returned by the surface instruments and of returned samples of the Apollo and Luna sites. In addition, knowledge of the sizes and positions of craters formed as the result of impacting spacecraft provides key benchmarks into the relationship between energy and crater size, as well as calibration points for reanalyzing seismic measurements acquired during the Apollo program. We identified the impact craters for the three spacecraft that impacted the surface during the LRO mission by comparing before and after NAC images.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Earth and Planetary Sciences Space and Planetary Science
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