SMART-1 Birthday Postcard of Apollo 11 Landing Site
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 21 Jul 2006 09:21:35 -0700
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM1O6BUQPE_index_0.html
SMART-1 birthday postcard of Apollo 11 landing site
European Space AGency
20 July 2006
This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on
board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the Apollo 11 landing site in the
Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon.
AMIE obtained the image on 5 February 2006 from a distance of 1764
kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 159 metres per
pixel. The imaged area is centred at a longitude of 23.9?? East
close to
the Moon equator, at 1.7?? latitude.
The area is close to crater Moltke (outside the field of view of this
image) in the Mare Tranquilitatis. The arrow shows the landing site of
Apollo 11, where the first men from Earth set foot on another object in
our solar system on 20 July 1969. The two prominent craters nearby are
named after two of the Apollo 11 astronauts. The first man on the Moon,
Armstrong, has a crater named after him outside the field of this
image.
As can be seen from the image, the area which was selected for the
first
landing has a fairly featureless, on a large scale smooth surface. This
was done on purpose to make the landing easier.
The landing sites of the Apollo missions are important calibration
targets for lunar remote sensing missions, as these are the places from
where material was brought back to Earth and analysed in detail. The
age
of the rocks returned with Apollo can be determined with radioisotopic
dating methods to very high accuracy and give 'reference points' to
remote sensing instruments.
"From SMART-1 observations of previous landing sites we can compare
remote observations to the ground truth, and expand from local to
global
views of the Moon," says Bernard Foing, ESA's SMART-1 Project
scientist.
"And we can better define potential sites for future landers," he
concluded. This image is a mosaic of several filter images of AMIE, the
boundaries of which can be seen by thin horizontal lines (north is up).
Note to editors
The SMART-1 team is also contributing its experience and data set for
the upcoming fleet of lunar orbiters and landers. This is being
discussed with international partners at the COSPAR Committee for Space
Research assembly taking place this week at Beijing, China, 37 years
after the historical landing in Mare Tranquillitatis, and on 23-27
July,
during an ILEWG (International Lunar Explorer Working Group)
international conference on exploration and utilisation of the Moon,
also taking place at Beijing.
For more information
Jean-Luc Josset, SPACE-X Space Exploration Institute
Email: jean-luc.josset @ space-x.ch
Bernard H. Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
Email: bernard.foing @ esa.int
.
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