Lunar landing module7/22/2023 Eagle had only about 30 seconds’ worth of fuel left at touchdown. Armstrong took manual control and skimmed over the crater, landing in a flat plain beyond. On final descent, Armstrong noted that the automatic landing system was guiding Eagle toward the boulder-strewn floor of a crater the size of a football field (”West Crater,” not shown below). Credits: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University LRO maneuvered into its 50-km mapping orbit on September 15. The morning’s long shadows would aid the astronauts in identifying landmarks. Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger descent stage comes into focus from the new lower 50 km mapping orbit, image width 102 meters. Predominant among these were the topography and texture of the lunar surface and the requirements of the lunar modules guidance and navigation system. Picking a spot where a lunar module could land was a complex exercise requiring tradeoffs among dozens of factors. This was so that the sun would be rising over Eagle’s landing site. Operational Constraints on Landing Sites. The top half of the vehicle had its own rocket engine, which was fired to lift the astronauts back into lunar orbit to rejoin the command module.Īt the time of landing, the moon was in a waxing crescent phase as seen from Earth. At the time of this recent overflight the Sun was high in the sky (28 incidence angle) helping to bring out subtle differences in surface brightness. The next pass over the Apollo 17 landing site resulted in images with more than two times better resolution than previously acquired. After taking off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on July 16th the lunar module Eagle landed on the moons surface. The fragile-looking lunar module was just tough enough to keep two astronauts alive and carry them to the surface of the moon. LRO maneuvered into its 50-km mapping orbit on September 15.
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