http://www.videosift.com/video/If-We-Had-No-Moon

combining I think good science and good music – & even squid refs! (don’t tell PZ Meyers! )

I thought the LRO would continue to lose altitude as it orbited until it eventually also crashes into the moon. Is that the idea? If so as it descends the resolution of its images will get better and better. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could actually read “Apollo 11″ on the lander in one of the last images?

Man, I was really hoping for some shots of Apollo landing sites at this resolution.

*ahem*

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_200911109_apollo11.html

Derek: “I’m sure that Captains Conrad and Bean could expound on the fractal nature of those landscapes.”

Bean – sure, especially since he paints moonscapes.
Conrad – not so much, being dead for 10 years now.

Don’t forget there was also the third member of Apollo 12 flying the Command & service modules – Richard Gordon.

He may not have got to walk on the lunar regolith but he also got a great close up view.

It needs something familiar in the shot like a car or person or ruler or fifty cent coin or giant sequoia tree et cetera …

NASA had to photoshop out the car in order avoid raising suspicions.

… yeah, and moonworms. Lots of moonworms, considering all the craters.

I’m sure that Captains Conrad and Bean could expound on the fractal nature of those landscapes.

Bean – sure, especially since he paints moonscapes.

Conrad – not so much, being dead for 10 years now.

In addition to settling after the impact crater was formed (as mentioned above), nearby subsequent impacts could create seismic ripples on the Moon’s surface that knocked the boulders loose.

I suspect the majority tumbled down that slope shortly after the crater was formed, as all the material was gradually settling.

But they are probably continuing to tumble. Tidal forces, the minute expansion and contraction from the heat of daytime to the cold of night, all these things add up. One stress builds upon another until…whump! The ground gives way and down comes a boulder.

That, and moonworms.

It’s easy to forget this anniversary when compared to the one we celebrated in July– just like it was easy for the public to disregard subsequent Apollo missions.

Isn’t it amazing what we can do?

“This is surreal, how each grain of moondust falls into place in these little fans, almost like rose petals.”
- Buzz Aldrin (during his first Moonwalk July 1969), Page 38, ‘Magnificent Desolation’, B. Aldrin, Bloomsbury, 2009.

“The triple triumph of the Moon, then, is that it made it possible for man [sic] to exist; it made it possible for him [sic] to develop mathematics and science, it made it possible for him [sic] to transcend Earth and conquer space.”
- Page 38, ‘The Tragedy of the Moon’, Isaac Asimov, Mercury Press, 1972.

{On Space Exploration / terraforming Venus}
“Earth will benefit in the end, and not just because there’s a new world to go to, but because of what we’ll learn.”
- Page 237, ‘Venus of Dreams’, Pamela Sargent, Bantam, 1986.

So I agree with 1 Peter Boulanger that sense of scale is hard to pick up sometimes .. It needs something familiar in the shot like a car or person or ruler or fifty cent coin or giant sequoia tree et cetera …

Still a neat image though!

Thanks BA & LRO.