Is it possible to see the moon landing sites

How did NASA decide where to land on the moon? Why does it matter? Well, with impact craters deeper than the Marianas Trench and with lunar mountains taller than Mount Everest, landing a three-legged Lunar Module LM wasn't going to be easy. Moon landing sites had to be carefully chosen based not only on the topography of the site but also because it would determine the trajectory and flight path of the LM, with a relatively narrow launch window to get to the moon.

Even the time of the launch had to be considered, as shadows cast by the sun would hide any details that could be important. With a slew of other constraints, a large zone was defined along the equator and the landing sites were chosen from within the zone.

Selecting multiple landing areas also provided a level of flexibility in takeoff that was much needed. Crews would not need to scramble to prepare a launch to one site when they could be prepared to land at a few different sites, should delays on Earth make one inaccessible. Along with other geologists, he studied the photographs from the Lunar Orbiter and categorized them. The places he selected within the zone would give the astronauts access to all varieties of lunar surface, allowing them to collect a variety of samples to study.

For the Apollo 11 mission, the decision was made in five sites along the equator were the most ideal for landing based on criteria such as smoothness, surrounding areas, and allowing for recycling time if needed. But Apollo 11 did not land where they thought it would. Given that the largest piece of equipment left on the Moon after each mission was the Did I say problem? LRO's orbital imagery and photos taken in situ by the Apollo astronauts will serve to illuminate our ramblings from one Apollo site to the next.

All the landing sites lie on the near side of the Moon and were chosen to explore different geologic terrains. Astronauts bagged pounds kg of Moon rocks, which represented everything from mare basalts to ancient highland rocks to impact-shattered rocks called breccias. Apollo 12 astronauts even found the first meteorite ever discovered on another world, the Bench Crater carbonaceous chondrite. With the Moon waxing this week and next, the advancing line of lunar sunrise will expose one site after another beginning with Apollo 17 in the Moon's eastern hemisphere and finishing with Apollos 12 and 14 in the western.

But the larger the scope and higher the power, the closer you'll be able to pinpoint each landing site and better able to visualize the scene. Below are the approximate times and current dates after New Moon when each Apollo landing site first becomes fully illuminated by the Sun:. The base images for all the sites are photographs taken by the LRO. Click the "paper stack" icon and uncheck Sunlit Region to see a fully-illuminated Moon, no matter the current phase.

Checking the Nomenclature box will bring up the names of craters, rills and many other features. More details about each of the LRO Apollo photos can be found here. Following are maps for pinpointing each Apollo landing site.

South is up, and clicking on the images will link you to higher resolution versions. Time to strap on your boots and follow in the footsteps of the first people to walk on the Moon. Astronomy and Stargazing Projects. By: Roger W. Sinnott November 12, By: Alan MacRobert November 12, By: Bob King November 10, By: Camille M. The tracks of the Apollo 17, where Eugene Gene Cernan and Harrison Jack Schmitt became the last men to walk on the Moon, paints a notably different picture at this high resolution.

But look closer. There's also something marked "LRV" as well as a lighter set of two parallel tracks that run across the surface. Know what they are? The Lunar Roving Vehicle was included on the last three Apollo missions and enabled the astronauts The tracks of these vehicles are still present today, and can be seen in data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle! Included on Apollo 15, 16, and 17, its tracks on the surface are distinctly different from human footprints, and allowed the astronauts on those missions to achieve distances far greater than those reached on the earlier missions.

The tracks from Apollo 17's LRV don't even come close to fitting in this image; they extend for a total distance of over 22 miles, reaching a maximum range of nearly five miles away from the landing site! Why, what's this? It's an image taken by Bill Anders of Apollo 8: the first crewed mission to go to This photo was taken as the capsule orbited the Moon and Earth appeared to rise over the horizon. The spacecraft window can be seen in the foreground.

Over 8, photos documenting our trips. Perhaps we all need a reminder of what the sacrifices were that went into our journey to the Moon. We accomplished the unthinkable by banding together to achieve a common goal, and could do it all once again. NASA has released all the photos of the twelve Apollo missions that made it to space on a publicly available Flickr photostream , sorted into a series of incredible albums by mission. Apollo 10, known as the 'dress rehearsal' for the Moon landing, was actually equipped with all the They came closer to the Moon than any previous crewed mission, and paved the way for the actual moon landing which took place with Apollo 11 in July of Some of the greatest, most eye-opening photos, stories and quotes came back from those trips, including some from Apollo 8's Bill Anders, who took the famous "Earthrise" photos illustrated above.

Anders described the journey to the Moon as follows:. You could see the flames and the outer skin of the spacecraft glowing; and burning, baseball-size chunks flying off behind us. It was an eerie feeling, like being a gnat inside a blowtorch flame. Some of the deployed scientific equipment taken to the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission, where the Scientific equipment we've installed on the Moon.

Did you know that we brought up a large amount of scientific equipment and installed it on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions? And many others. That we have the data from these experiments, and that the lunar retroreflectors are still in use today, represent some pretty strong evidence that we did, in fact, land on the Moon. This image, from January 31, , shows sunrise from Alan Shepard's 12 o'clock pan taken near the Without the Sun glare, we can see some detail on the Cone-Crater ridge.

We brought back samples, and learned a ton about lunar geology from them. The final two astronauts to ever walk on the Moon, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, ran into quite a surprise when they did. Schmitt, the lone civilian-astronaut and only scientist to travel to the Moon, was often described as the most business-like of all the astronauts. Which is why it must have been such a shock to hear him exclaim the following:.