- Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) continues to churn out stunning images of Earth’s Moon.
For two weeks in mid-December 2010, the LRO spacecraft looked straight down, so that the orbiter’s LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) could acquire roughly 1,300 images.
All that work has allowed the LROC team to construct a truly impressive mosaic of the Moon.
As the Moon rotated under LRO’s orbit, the ground track progressed from east to west (right to left in the mosaic), and the incidence angle at the equator increased from 69° to 82° (at noontime the incidence angle is 0°).
The LROC wide angle camera is quite small, easily fitting in your hand. It weighs in at only 2 pounds (900 grams). Despite its diminutive size, the WAC maps nearly the whole Moon every month, in 7 wavelengths.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched in June 2009.
The LROC wide angle camera was designed, built, and calibrated at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, California.
For more details on the LRO imagery, go to:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/341-Nearside-Spectacular!.html
By LD/CSE